<p>We are in a similar situation to seiclan…DD’s Pre Calc H teacher keeps encouraging her to do AP Calc BC next year. DD received a B- at the semester, her lowest grade in years. She is committed to the IB program (loves it, great fit for her). The Pre Calc H teacher keeps going on about not denying anyone the opportunity to try. It’s very frustrating. We have hired a tutor for this year. DD has a demanding schedule already planned for next year and we really don’t see why she can’t do AP Calc AB as a junior (she will do IB Math SL as a senior in any case). I’ll be making some calls this week…</p>
<p>I put in a call to my child’s guidance counselor two days ago and he still hasn’t returned my call. I suspect, with over 800 kids under his care, that he will not be of much if any help. I spoke to a mom whose daughter took AP English Lang at our school and she said that her brilliant daughter said it was the hardest AP that she ever took. It is very time consuming with large amounts of reading and writing. NO WAY FOR MY KID. I am not sure how our discussion/fight is going to go but he absolutely cannot do this class. He was overwelmed by the reading in AP World this year, he will not have the attention or ability or time to do AP English. I am also trying to ixnay the AP Spanish that he is lobbying for. He just won’t have the time with AP Calc, AP Physics and AP Chem (all killer classes at our school). If he really wants 5 AP’s, I would encourage him to add AP Psych and or AP Human Geography. Honors English 3 and Honors US History will complete an already rigorous schedule. Now, how to convince son…</p>
<p>Let me just pop this out though.
The SAT is one part Math and two parts English…</p>
<p>Hi there everyone!</p>
<p>After seeing my daughter hunched over her screen for hours hunting around this site yesterday I decided to take a look for myself. Boy am I glad I did! This thread is extremely helpful as I’m a bit new to this high school/college game.</p>
<p>My daughter is an over achiever as all of your kids seem to be and works exceptionally hard. Her English and Writing classes come easy to her while the Math and Science courses take a lot more studying on her part. She did a little above average on the PSAT’s and isn’t the best test taker and has been searching and searching for ways to improve. The words “chill out” don’t seem to be in her vocabulary, much to my dislike.</p>
<p>Anyhow, the real reason I’m posting on here is to ask a question about her schedule for next year. She’s 99% set on:</p>
<p>Honors Calc I
Honors English III
Honors Chem
Honors Spanish III
AP Lang and Composition
AP US History II
Religion III (as a required course)</p>
<p>Her last class is a draw between Creative Writing II or Honors US Law. She loves writing, is very good at it, and it would be an easier class in her hectic schedule. She took Creative Writing I her Freshmen year and positively loved it but has been having her doubts ever since her Guidance Counselor told her that Law may be something she would like and Creative Writing/Journalism (her dream majors since she was young) aren’t really practical. Plus Honors Law would give her more of an advantage for her weighted GPA. Should I push the Creative Writing class to give her some sense of enjoyment and relaxation, or should I let her go for the extra honors class? Any thoughts?</p>
<p>welcome laurless, my first thought it the colleges want to see the most rigor in the schedule. So that means a very challenging junior year. Of course, some will ask for senior transcripts so they should be taking some challenging classes then, too.</p>
<p>Fellow posters, please feel free to chime in - my D’s in the same boat.<br>
Our kids’ high school makes APs available to only juniors and seniors. My D wants to take 5 APs on top of a demanding sport schedule. We will look into the summer school route to get at least 2 classes out of the way. Her counselor is very supportive with letting her try certain classes and then making changes in her schedule after a week (if needed and reasonable.) She doesn’t abuse this opportunity. Although, she has to keep this hush-hush or everyone would want to do it, lol. </p>
<p>Have your kids started to express interest in specific schools or types of schools? My D says she’s so confused and doesn’t know where to start. Her strengths (as she sees them) are in math and science - great test scores. But her ec’s have her involved in activities like student government and mock trial. She feels her interests are all over the map. Any ideas to how to start identifying potential majors or areas or study?</p>
<p>I feel I should know all this because my S just went through the college search/app process but he’s so different!</p>
<p>Meeting with D’s counselor tomorrow for the first time. It will be interesting. My D is pushing to leave HS and start at the CC and be able to transfer as a junior at 18. We will probably come up with a traditional HS schedule for next year along with an alternative plan if she passes the CHSPE. If she passes the exam I will have to make a decision if we will let her leave HS early. I am hoping to come up with a combination for next year of part HS and part CC with more time for EC’s. Hope the school is willing to be flexible and work with us.
Anyone else dealing with present teachers getting pink slips for next fall? Hoping it doesn’t have an effect on their teaching and attitude for the rest of this school year.With classes all full to capacity I don’t know how the school district plans to teach all the students with fewer teachers.</p>
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<p>What is your point? I do not doubt the AP English is “good” for improving English skills but, if one has a child who is a mediocre in reading and writing, a poor test taker to start with and whose only positive asset on college applications might be his high school GPA, it makes more sense to protect that GPA. If you overwelm a student with AP’s in subject areas that they do not do well or have any interest in, you risk a GPA dive in their other classes (simply because there aren’t enough hours in the day to adequately do all the work).</p>
<p>We have decided, NO AP HISTORY OR ENGLISH. These subjects are not his forte and are big time eaters (since my son reads slowly and they have so much reading). If he gets A’s in honors during Junior year, he can go for AP Gov/Econ in senior year. </p>
<p>We are looking at now for junior year:</p>
<p>AP Calculus AB
AP Physics B
AP Chemistry
AP Psychology
Honors US History
Honors English 3
Honors Marine Science</p>
<p>seiclan, my D is similar to your S. In fact, her schedule looks so much like his! Except for physics. I’m looking into the ACT for her - here, most students take the SAT. </p>
<p>mom60, unfortunately, teachers in this area are definitely on edge with pink slips being issued now. I see the stress among the elementary school teachers where most of the cuts are being made. I may be wrong, but I haven’t heard of major cuts at the high school level although I’ve heard rumors of administrative cuts as well as cuts in the counseling dept.</p>
<p>Wow! I read some of your kids’ schedules with a mixture of envy and relief that D doesn’t have the option to take such a heavy load. Our HS does not have a lot of AP classes and few accelerated or honors classes. Because the school is small many of the AP classes are offered only once a day so it’s not possible to take more than three, maybe four, at a time. Her junior schedule looks like this:</p>
<p>~APUSH
~AP English Lang
~Spanish IV
~Integrated Analysis and Physics (double class) - this is the precursor to AP Calc and/or AP Physics and is considered among the most rigorous classes in the curriculum.
~Art II</p>
<p>lilmom - re: your earlier question about colleges, D is not expressing any preference for a particular major, but she is starting to think about small liberal arts schools in a warm climate. Or as she puts it, “hippie” schools with palm trees ;)</p>
<p>^that’s funny PRJ. My daughter wants to look into schools far from home on the east coast where there are no palm trees!</p>
<p>Yes, there are major budget cuts in our area too. Our principal was saying just the other day that she didn’t know how she was going to manage next year, we will be short the equivalent of about 15 teacher salaries. There is no fat in the budget left to trim…this is definitely going to hurt everyone. This past year they cut some sports teams and cut back on the schedules of other sport teams. The secretaries in the office are overwelmed since they let about half of them go last year. I volunteer once a week to help out and let me tell you, they really need a few full time volunteers. Due to the Florida class size amendment, there cannot be any more than 25 students in an academic class yet we don’t have enough money to hire any more teachers…a mess. I hope that they do not cut back the AP program next year. </p>
<p>PRJ, I wish that my son did not feel the need to take such a heavy load but alas our high school is full of “gifted over achievers” (there are probably at least 100 in each grade who came right from the elementary and middle school’s gifted program where they needed an IQ over 130 to qualify). The top 5-10% of each class over load in AP and honors classes. The kids who don’t take such a rigorous load cannot hope to get into the top 10%. My son is getting an excellent education but at a high price (stress, lack of down time, curtailed sports). Sigh.</p>
<p>and taking a deep breath too here. Our sophomore son has really enjoyed this sophomore year after a rough freshman year at a different school, even in subjects we never knew he had aptitude for (chemistry) or great interest in (government and economics).</p>
<p>I share your concern about the GPA as he needs to keep up the good work and then some because of his freshman outcome. But I’m tempering my maternal angst over his proposed selection by recognizing he gets to choose classes he’s professed interest in over my fear of “what ifs”. I don’t know how else but to let him go in life, especially since his frontal brain seems to be myelinating rapidly now (yes!). So who am I to hold him back? He’s on for a challenging Junior year, and I’m in for another teen wild ride where I step back in September '10 with baited breath and pace myself with slow exhalation and excitement.</p>
<p>I so empathize with what you’re going through. Carpe Diem, kids! Goodness knows this country needs youth grasping the moment and going for it. </p>
<p>AP Chemistry
AP US History
AP Economics
Honors English 11
Honors Spanish III
Pre Calc I & II
Elective</p>
<p>Just popping in here by mistake, but I’d like to say that both my kids decided not to take either AP English course or even honors English as seniors. It didn’t keep my oldest from being accepted at Harvard (admittedly a legacy) or Carnegie Mellon. It didn’t keep my youngest from being accepted EA at Chicago (who I am sure liked his essays). Both my kids really enjoyed their senior year English electives and their unweighted grades actually ended up being higher than their weighted grades in English had been historically. Most of the top students at our school feel they have to take AP English, but I’m glad my kids had the gumption to say no. My younger son said he planned to learn to write from his AP Euro teacher - who gives lots of papers. (The latest one has to be about a 19th c. novel - so it’s even an English paper!) My older son is still avoiding writing courses as much as possible in college, but he did very well in the ones he was forced to take.</p>
<p>Why would you dissuade your child from something they love? If your child loves writing why, at the ripe old age of 16, point her to law? If it’s for college applications, keep in mind that many writers do move towards law as a graduate student, and colleges know that. What a college wants is a child who has passion and does things in high school because of that passion and interest, not because it will look good on her transcript.</p>
<p>It’s the same thing with extracurriculars, service, and APs. What works FOR YOUR CHILD, that’s what will get him/her into the school that’s the best match.</p>
<p>I so totally agree with mathmom; do what works FOR YOUR CHILD. My daughter dropped foreign language as soon as she could (10th grade - 3 years). Horrors they all said, including her guidance counselor and those “in the know.” Funny, it didn’t keep her from being accepted into Yale. It did waitlist her at Dartmouth (we’re pretty sure that was the reason) but Dartmouth was a bad match because of it’s large emphasis on foreign language and for other reasons.</p>
<p>Please, stop trying to outsmart admissions people. Let them see who your child is, not the chameleon you’re trying to make him/her be to get admitted. Everyone will be so much happier, and isn’t that what we truly want for our kids, for them to be happy?</p>
<p>Is it such a clear cut, let kids be? Your daughter had to wait 3 yeras before dropping foreign language. If you let her be, she probably would have dropped it sooner?</p>
<p>I had always told my D to do what she likes to do as far as it’s not a cop-out. Now I don’t know what to tell her. She chose to take AP physics C, both mechanics and electricity & magnetism in addition to general science that is required by her school. Now GC is telling her she needs 4 years of science for the kind of schools she is looking at. She is mainly frustrated because they have been telling kids they should follow their hearts not college applications. Seems somewhat hypocritical since what they were really saying is follow your hearts as far as it doesn’t interfere with your college applications.</p>
<p>Do I go gung-ho and tell her not to take anymore sciences since she isn’t interested in sciences? And take the chance to get eliminated in the first round at the kind of schools she would like to go and could have had a chance?</p>
<p>Wonderful posts amtc and mathmom!!! My DS said in the 9th grade said that he would not take any class or do any EC for the soul purpose of looking good for college. He has stayed true to his word. When he was deciding last year on his 10th grade classes he did not take AP Euro( the only AP offered for sophmores) like everyone else at his prep school,even though he is a great and fast reader, but took Economics and a religion class. He was teased by all of his friends because of it, but he said he LOVED Economics and probably wouldn’t have known that he had a passion for it had he taken the Euro class. This year when he was deciding on classes he carefully picked 2 AP’s ( US and Bio) and decided against the honors English( a weighted and VERY hard class at S’s school), and the AP Latin. He also decided on a class that goes beyond AP level, and is the most challenging at the school, but it is a Philosophy class, something that he has a passion for and might be majoring in. Anyway, I am proud of him and I don’t think it will hurt him a bit in his college admissions.</p>
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<p>How to tell the two apart? Maybe SAT should include a section on passion indicator. They changed from 1600 to 2400, certainly they can add something as an experiment, perhaps only a few questions (if doable).</p>
<p>It is interesting that many of your schools have honors classes. D’s HS has no honors classes. Her choice for US History will be either regular US History or AP US History. For English it is Eng11, AP English or a dual enrolled college English class. The academic gap between regular and AP is huge. It would be wonderful to have something in between. </p>
<p>Our public schools are scrapping the bottom budget wise. Last year they cut counselors and teachers. This year it is more teachers. The combined elementary/secondary district is going down to 3 school psychologists for the entire district of 3 HS’s, 4 Middle Schools and I think about 14 elementary schools. How can they do even a decent job when spread so thin.</p>
<p>mom60, our school doesn’t have honors classes after soph yr, either. I hope the meeting with the counselor is productive. </p>
<p>My senior chose not to take APUSH and was miserably bored in the “college prep” class (that’s what they call the “regular” class) but he chose to stay in it. He also made the decision to stop after Alg. II and go to AP Stats. He said he wasn’t a math person. We respected that. He’s been accepted to a great school that he feels is a great fit for him.<br>
Our soph D is quite the opposite. She wants to do it all. A “B” in an honors math class was better for her instead of the “A” she could’ve received in the “regular” class. She gets it. It’s about challenging herself. I just have to stop thinking GPA.</p>
<p>mom60 –</p>
<p>The school my daughter is currently in doesn’t have honors classes at all. For freshman English, you can either take regular English or pre-AP English. For courses where there’s an actual AP course (like US History) , then it’s either regular or AP.</p>
<p>There’s a HUGE difference between regular and AP. Most kids who can do the AP level don’t even consider NOT doing it in their core courses.</p>