<p>Hmm, I think electives are fun! What do your kids take “for fun”? My DS12’s electives will be: Studio Art (9), Ceramics (10), Portfolio Prep (11) and AP Art (12), Intro to Engineering, marine science, web page design and Computer Basic 1 and 2. Everything else is core courses in Math, English, SS, Science and Spanish. Because we are in NY and the state requires Living Bio and Chem regents, children here don’t get to take AP sciences till 11th grade. Even then it is hard to double up 2 AP science classes. Many kids take AP Bio, AP Chem and Physics. Because of scheduling problems my DS12 will take AP Bio, AP Environmental Science and Honors Physics. He will forgo AP Chem. I think that is a mistake, but he really likes ES much more than Chem and that is what he will do.</p>
<p>My D here in SoCal takes journalism as her elective and is a page editor this year. She will have to take a one year art class of some sort next year as this is required for graduation. D will probably take ceramics or photography to fullfill this.</p>
<p>S has had speech and acting as the “fun” electives and PLTW Bio med classes as the other electives. Considering that those science classes are harder than his APs, I don’t think he would count them as fun, but he has learned a great deal from them. Senior year, he may take guitar or choir unless he can take college classes to fill his schedule.</p>
<p>A one year art class is also a required course at my D’s school. I believe she will take Studio art. She would have liked to take it for two years if she could have. No space for that.</p>
<p>Different kids find different classes fun. My dd would find art to be slow torture. But she’s taking an elective math class, and talking about another one next semester, just for fun.</p>
<p>My DS would consider any additional math classes torture. Extra science - great! Math - no way! He’s actually suprised himself in how much he is enjoying his art classes and he’s actually pretty talented too. Not sure what is “says” to colleges, but he is having fun and that’s fine with me.</p>
<p>DD would also be horrified to have to take visual art-- it definitely takes all kinds!</p>
<p>And DD is loving her multidisciplinary program that combines English, history, and art. She counts the minutes until math and science are over and she leaves for the other program. What a diverse group we have here!</p>
<p>Ds takes extra science for his electives. He has three sciences this year (AP Chem, AP Physics B and Marine Science honors). Next year he will take AP Physics C and honors Astronomy, a highly coveted senior only elective that occasionally meets at the wee hours of the night (in the middle of a field with a telescope)!!</p>
<p>Astronomy?! That’s a dedicated teacher if it isn’t just taught in a planetarium! 2011 son’s favorite electives were A+ certification, Networking and Server computer courses. He also took art classes through AP 2D design. 2012 D is taking two foreign languages (currently Spanish and Chinese). Previously she took IB psychology “just for fun” after taking a summer psych course at CTD. She also enjoyed journalism and newspaper but has no more time for that, unfortunately. 2014 Son is taking percussion and AP environmental science for electives but the latter hasn’t been much fun, unfortunately. The class (mostly juniors and seniors) average on tests has been 60%. Son is doing a little better than that. I can’t figure out why the teacher doesn’t revise his teaching methods if, after three exams, his students still haven’t caught on to what they need to learn.</p>
<p>Our first. Over the Columbus day break, we are planning two schools a day. Go to Bard on Sunday morning then to Vassar. Drive to Wesleyan in the evening. Spend the night there. Vist Wesleyan in the morning and to Yale. Is it doable?</p>
<p>That’s a lot of driving. I’d be worried about traffic. Are you setting up official visits? Do you have to be at a campus at a certain time, or are you going to just walk around so if you get at the next campus at 2 pm or 4 pm it won’t really matter? </p>
<p>We are considering doing visits as well on that weekend, but I don’t want to visit a campus and not get “logged” in by the school. We have a friend who was an admission councelor and she said it definitely counts that you have visited the school. We are looking at SUNY Binghampton, SUNY Geneseo and Cornell. Not sure if we should do it though as it is a 6 hour drive out there and I think the admissions offices do tours on Sat and Monday, but are closed on Sundays.</p>
<p>Columbus Day break? We don’t get that day off. That is one of our visiting schools problems here in South Florida. We don’t have many days off on Fridays or Mondays to justify any time for trips. My kids spring break is the same week as many colleges this year.</p>
<p>The plan is still sketchy. I thought we would just walk around without attending info sessions or make any other “official” visit. Is there a way to “log” without participating an official session? My D and I are bad at sitting through an info session. It’s 2 hours and half from Vassar to Wesleyan according to Google. Is the traffic bad on Sunday afternoon? Could you suggest a scenic route? It would be nice if we can combine the college visit with watching fall color. I gave up taking a vacation for a year.</p>
<p>seiclan, That makes it tough. We also have the President weekend we can use weather permitting. I am saving My D’s spring break for West coast schools.</p>
<p>That trip seems totally doable to me, even in Fall foliage traffic. The schools you want to visit on the same day are close to each other, and the drive to Wesleyan should be not time pressured at all. I assume you’ve looked at the web sites and set up what you want to set up. Columbus Day can be really busy in admissions offices.</p>
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<p>I heard that some schools don’t track visitors at all, but I don’t remember what schools though. Getting “logged” or not, visiting is helpful, at least to us parents.</p>
<p>…the web sites and set up what you want to set up…</p>
<p>IJustDrive, This shows my true color; What should I want to set up?</p>
<p>Visiting Bard and Vassar then driving to Wesleyan is certainly doable. But seeing Bard only on a Sunday morning is going to skew your view of the place - it will seem very empty and quiet as most students will still be asleep. Even the dining hall doesn’t open until late morning. Although I’m not a fan of official tours, either, it might be your best bet at Bard just to hear something about the school because you’re mostly going to see quiet buildings, and posters on the bulletin boards.</p>
<p>Igloo - while you are visiting Vassar in October, pull off to the side of the road at a fresh fruit stand in Dutches County (or better yet, find a cider mill on the Internet and plan to go there). The best apples in the world are found in Dutches County, NY in October.</p>
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You can Google any school’s Common Data Set (CDS) and go to section C7 where they list the relative importance of several factors in admissions, one of which is “Level of Applicant’s Interest”. Some schools consider it, some don’t. Vassar does not: [C</a>. First-time, First-year (Freshman) Admission - Institutional Research - Vassar College](<a href=“Institutional Research – Vassar College”>Institutional Research – Vassar College)</p>