<p>Our private hs will not allow students to graduate in three years…
If you want a diploma from the school–you have to have 4 yrs of hs…</p>
<p>They also do not allow dual enrollment…claiming there are enough APs etc</p>
<p>However–I can tell you that this year our kiddo had scheduling problems since the APs are offered 1x a day for some classes–
and so kiddo got stuck with a regular elective…despite wanting an AP history…</p>
<p>When we complained to the GC–the GC said it" didn’t matter" about wanting the 4th yr of history, nor the AP bump/gpa being lost by getting stuck with a regular class etc… </p>
<p>IS she insane–??
YES it does matter.
Still she did nothing, and it seems ridiculous…
Our kiddo noted recently that the GC wasn’t much of a fan/help to kiddo and seems to underestimate kiddo’s potential etc…I worry a little about the GC’s rec</p>
<p>As far as exceptions being made–I KNOW of a student who took college classes since middle school---- cannot imagine what THAT took to get it done…I do know the parent was VERY concerned about how the hs would give the student credit somehow in the gpa…must have worked it out–the kid was val.</p>
<p>^It’s actually education “law” in my state. If a course is offered for dual credit, the school may not offer the same course as AP. We’ve got dual credit calculus and physics, no AP calculus or phsics. In fact, the district offers just 9 AP courses. Looks like we went the other way than that school with enough APs. I think dual credits are far more popular here because it’s credit - with a lot less risk than AP. I know there’s one poster on CC who will swear the NO college she’s ever even looked at would consider dual credit, but I have to say I’ve had the opposite experience. All the schools od1 is looking at will take it. Will it all be useful? Probably not. But then, a lot of AP “credit” winds up as elective credit, too.</p>
<p>I think what our district does should be outlawed. AP classes are +1.25 points but dual credit classes are considered “regular” …so the kids who want/need higher GPAs are forced to take the AP version (where they may or may not pass the test and they may or not get AP credit) rather than the class for actual college credit. I think it’s just wrong.</p>
<p>^^ Missy
That si just wrong–and odd. Makes no snese.</p>
<p>Of all of the schools kiddo is looking at–I think only the safety of safties offers any AP credit. Almost all of the others do not offer AP credit–and some will only offer advanced standing. Some don’t offer advanced standing and only offer to take the next level–no credit at all…</p>
<p>AP is a big money maker and not so great in the end…</p>
<p>Have you seen that LA Times article about it…its about $</p>
<p>I agree. And in addition to AP being a money maker, one of the big HS “ratings” is largely based on # of AP tests taken, so schools where I live really push the AP. Dual enrollment is an option, but one which they do not advertise.</p>
<p>And of course, the only way the GCs will check the “most rigorous course of study” box on the recommendation form is if a student has taken a lot of AP courses. If I didn’t have so many “causes” going already, I’d take up this one with the district.</p>
<p>Fogfog: When I was a senior in h.s. (private), there was a junior who maxed out the SAT math section. he was invited by Caltech to matriculate the next year if he graduated h.s. in 3 years. Our private school would not allow him to. the kid was heartbroken. When he informed Caltech that he would not be able to go, and why, Caltech told him they did not care about his h.s. diploma, he could come out to CA anyway. The kid dropped out after junior year and went to Caltech. (I am sure he got a GED or something). The kid is legend because he “stuck it to the man!”</p>
<p>^^
While I am all for obeying authority–I LIKE that CalTech supported the kid…
There are some things at our private hs that we dont like
(for instance–no password/access to Naviance–yet the kids scores/gpa are used for this “tool”) We have to make an appt and go to the GCs office to look at it with them—</p>
<p>Our Sr. student has max’d out the math and science depts this year…and a couple of slots during the day are filler…</p>
<p>sigh</p>
<p>we have learned a few things over the last 4 yrs we hope benefits '14 kiddo</p>
<p>Speaking of Naviance, I discovered that S’s school has the information available even for freshman parents. In our older child’s HS, we couldn’t get a password until our chld was a junior.</p>
<p>Our students can not take any classes between 8th-9th grade unless it’s remediation. Absolutely stinking silly! S3 is in a program where he’d like to take some great academic electives but has no room in his schedule. He could have if he’d been able to take a class over the summer. He can do it next summer, but the restriction on rising freshman was just annoying.</p>
<p>Like many of you, no APs until sophomore year when you can take one: AP World History or AP Euro. Pre-AP or Honors are unweighted. Dual enrollment classes are unweighted. Our school is overenrolled by 800 students… yes 800 this year. They had to put students in Virtual Classes and Dual enrolled that had intended on APs.</p>
<p>We do have students that graduate with advanced diplomas successfully after three years if they take Eng Lit and Government either online or in the summer. They have been high achieving students that are typically bored. They have gone to great schools. Their rank has been in the top 5-10% which is simply based on the end of the Jr year.</p>
<p>We still have only one Val & one Sal, which I think is appropriate if you are going to have it. The top 5% is separated by such a very slim margin.</p>
<p>My D2 is class of 2015. D1 is class of 2011. Between the transition of D2 to HS and the college apps for D1- this is a crazy fall.</p>
<p>D2 is adjusting well to HS. All Honors courses, so far, homework has not been overwhelming. Her HS, a large (4000+) public school, does not allow APs in freshman year.</p>
<p>Wow, 4000 students is a HUGE HS. Glad your D is adjusting well.</p>
<p>Neither of my HS’s my kids attend/ed allow freshman to take AP. At least that I know of. Sometimes I read on cc where someone’s child graduated with 11 or 12 AP’s and I can’t figure out how they did that.</p>
<p>At our local HS, no AP’s freshman year. Usually the more motivated students take one sophomore year, one or 2 as juniors and 3 or 4 (occasionally 5) as seniors. The top students typically end up with maybe 6 or 7, it’s rare for anyone to take more than that and most kids take fewer.</p>
<p>S is currently attending a very well know public magnet and freshman there do not take AP. I don’t think the sophomores do either except for a few kids who will be in Calc.</p>
<p>What AP are they allowed to take as freshman?</p>
<p>Do they typically take 2 years of HS math (i.e. Algebra and Geometry) in middle school?</p>
<p>What about foreign languages? They have just started allowing 2 years in middle school here, so I suppose some of this will change as now many juniors will be in AP Spanish, French, etc.</p>
<p>How do the students typically do on the AP testing?</p>
<p>I’m really curious as I was under the impression that the students here took a lot of AP. I guess not!</p>
<p>My 2011 son will finish high school having taken 8 AP classes (4s on 3 so far) - pretty typical for his school. My 2012 daughter will finish high school having taken 14-16 exams but not as many classes since she has self studied human geography (10th), U.S. govt (10th), art history (10th) and psychology (9th) and plans to self study environmental science this year. She wants to be an AP national scholar by the end of her junior year so that she can put that on her applications. She needs four 4s this year to do that. 2014 son may accomplish that by the end of his sophomore year if he does well on the 8 AP courses he will take by the end of his sophomore year. Then he’s aiming for a place at United World Colleges to do an IB program for his last two years. We’ll see if that happens. At least I don’t think his school will stand in his way. He’s been taking high school classes online since 7th grade just to keep from being overwhelmingly bored. I’m just glad he has some alternatives.</p>
<p>My DD is 9th grader. She is taking AP Psychology (for 1 semester) and AP Human Geography. The school offers a lot AP courses. If she follows through with her schedule, she could graduate in 4 years with 15 AP courses. However, they are not set in stone. If she can not handle them, we will downgrade the courses to PAP. Local community college will accept AP courses toward dual degree (after she pass the AP test). The school does have rules about when you can take certain courses. However, we found out that they don’t seriously enforce the rules.</p>
<p>FallGirl: My son’s HS does not allow AP as a freshman. Our guidance director (I teach at the school) wants students to have at least a year of HS English (the honors version) behind them before they take an AP class, and it will be online. There are only 4 APs offered in the building. Students can begin their high school math track in seventh grade with Algebra I, followed by geometry as eighth graders. They also can start their foreign language with Spanish I or Latin I as eighth graders. </p>
<p>The downer to all this is that kids finish out their required classes very early. Most will not graduate early. So, in some cases, they will take classes at a local community college – but they need to be able to drive because it’s 20-plus miles away. Some take AP online. Others just fill in their schedules with electives that may not be too challenging. Our HS has fewer than 300 kids in grades 9-12. </p>
<p>As for how well our students do with AP, well, it depends. Traditionally, the class that has the highest average is APUSH. The man who has been teaching the class has done so for more than 30 years. He works the kids, but he also gets results. A lot of kids take online AP. Their scores will vary – we had two get 5s last year in AP psychology. A few kids had 4s in various subjects. (Two years ago, when my oldest was in HS, we had some kids do so well that they started college as sophomores. My son started as a junior.) </p>
<p>Kids often believe it’s easier to take a class online, which is not true. They immediately learn that time management is key.</p>