Our school district here requires 6 quarters of physical education, of which 2 quarters are required to be health taught in a classroom setting. Participation in intermural athletics in any one academic year waives but does not grant credit for one quarter of physical education (which cannot substitute for the health requirement); you cannot get a waiver for more than one quarter of it in a single academic year, no matter how many sports you play. However, you have to actually play during the season to get the waiver. Finally, under ordinary circumstances there are no physical education classes that are less than a semester (i.e., two quarters).
This is a known problem for single-sport spring-season athletes—if they don’t take a semester of physical education at some point, even if they plan to play all four years of high school they run the risk of not meeting the graduation requirement if they’re injured shortly before the season starts and thus unable to play.
DS’s full resume is 3 pages (with test scores and detailed description of all his activities) and he also has one page resume with smaller font On Common App if college allows, which one should we upload?
I agree that being on a team should excuse a kid from taking a PE class. It’s certainly more exercise than sulking around and running some laps as most PE classes do.
Sport teams do count as a PE class for us, and 4 semesters of PE are required. So, I guess we have it pretty good. If it’s an after-school sport, you almost always have to take a study hall during the regular 6-period day.
S was on a volleyball team freshman year, which practiced after school. He couldn’t take an extra class during the extra period, but he was able to TA for the Comp Sci teacher and get community service hours for that and not have “study hall” on his transcript.
We only have a 6-period day, so fitting in 4 semesters of PE, 1 semester of health, and 1 semester of “freshman seminar” is already a squeeze if you want the 4 cores, foreign language, plus a program such as our engineering program.
AP sciences don’t double up, but with a 6-period day, I guess our 58 minute periods are longer than some of yours. They have 3 classes each on Wed/Thurs, and those are 90 minutes.
At D’s school, you can substitute for the PE requirement with participation in a school sport or if you can document a certain number of hours for a regular structured physical activity like dance, martial arts, or a club sport that is not offered on campus.
Great CC pay it forward moment today. I ran into a friend who also has a D17. I asked how the college process was going. She was thinking of having her daughter attend the local state U until she figured out what kind of school she wanted and would then transfer. Me: “you know that if you do that, she will lose out on the majority of merit scholarships as they are offered primarily to freshmen and not transfer students.” She: Eyebrows go up, face falls.
@srk2017 I’m a believer in MAX one page resume for high school age kids and I made that point a few hundred posts ago. I was promptly put in my place on this thread by some posters with very good points. I guess in your situation it depends on what the school asks for and if there are any restrictions in place.
If I were an AO, I would not want to read several hundred (or thousand) multiple page resumes.
In fact, when my son did a print preview of his Activities section of the Common App, the tenth activity was solo on page 2. I told him to cut it to 9 to keep his list to one page. Maybe silly, but it’s just easier and more simple for an AO.
It’s funny how things are coming back to me as I read about different stages of the college app process. I remember that one of D15’s schools required that the resume be limited to one page.
We have a plain old six period day. All athletes have sixth period pe and go from there through about 4:30 on non game days. Non athletes take pe for 2 years in one of the earlier periods.
The hard thing for athletes who play all 4 years is that leaves only 5 periods for academic classes.
This year DD17 has
IBHL English
IBSL Economy
IBHL history
IBHL chem double period
Athletics
Just looked at Naviance and found the school changed from using unweighted GPA to weighted GPA. I need to re screen shots the graphs now :D. But I do think weighted should be a better comp!
So my D is the only student signed up for the MIT college visit at school later this week. Decent chance she remains the only one due to the requirements they placed on signing up and the interest of her peers. So if that happens do you think it might be a little interview-ish? Should I have her prepare herself just in case?
We are similar to @Yntogo… Not similar enough I’m guessing we aren’t in the same school or district.
We only have 6 periods in a day. It’s a bit more complicated than that but this doesn’t allow much time for 4 years of PE. Most sports are officially during sixth period but most run longer. We have a modified block, meaning 3 days a week you go to all courses. And the other two you only attend 1/2 your classes but they are longer (good for labs), plus have a open period meant for studying, retaking a test, or talking with your teachers.
@curiositycat333 Very similar, down to the open period for studying, etc. We call it “seminar.” The idea was copied from several other schools in SoCal, so I agree, not the same school.
D’s school is on a modified block schedule. Students can take as many as 8 classes. PE is only required for one year, as we are in big time athletic country where most kids do 1 or more sports or band/color guard/dance team/cheerleading. I believe first and last period are the same every day and the other periods alternate every other day for 90 minutes per class. Every student has a 30 minute lunch as an add on to a certain period (I’m not exactly sure how that works). The PE requirement is satisfied by a jv or varsity sport, band etc., or a time-consuming club sport. PE is also graded. Many teams practice as a 1st period or 8th period, both, or just by adding on time to 1st or 8th. Athletics is a huge time commitment as athletics is glorified here.
Resumes - D is using her 3 page resume which she successfully used for competitive summer programs and job application/interviews. She has to cut it down to 2 pages, however, for one school that wants all resumes limited to 2 pages. I do not advise shrinking font to fit everything on 1 page. It’s ok for admissions purposes to have a multi-page resume. In fact, colleges wouldn’t ask for a resume if everything listed on the app were sufficient. The resume is the student’s chance to include everything. They should take it, imo, and that is the advice we received from multiple AO’s.
@mommdc yes my family is able to pay oos costs and my instate school is university of southern florida (USF). do u have any idea of what my chances would be?
@Dolemite Absolutely treat it like an interview. And consider her lucky. Don’t stress her out about it, but have her arm herself with a list of good questions. Tell her to make sure she’s on time give her advice on basic interview etiquette. Good luck to her!
My son will definitely have a few of those meetings at his high school as well.
Our school kids are required to take PE all 4 years, every other day, whether they play sports or not. I wish they would let the athletes go for lunch or a study hall during gym period in the season.
Dd20 is running about 40 mIles a week for xc and is strictly not to do any other cardio workouts. Wonder how that works with kids that have pe on top of a sport.
D feels that from all the entries on CA, attaching her resume would be redundant. She has put in 600 words ( or is that characters?) in Additional Information(?). she told me the other information not making the CA is not “essential”.
When are you attaching the resume, when the schools request it or when it is optional? She is only doing it when a school(separate app) application doesn’t have much room. Please help me with some arguments to convince her!!
In case you can’t tell yet, she is the boss in this process. I am just a lowly assistant holding the purse!!
Well, today has been a rough day. We all tend to worry about the little things in life. I know I tend to do that a lot. Then you get a reality check. One of my S’s friends and his twin brother where headed to band practice this morning when they pulled out and a truck hit them. One friend died at the scene and the other has broken ribs and bruised up pretty bad. My heart hurts for their mom. Those boys have been her whole life! We have known them since they were toddlers. Went to the same daycare as my S. We are in a small community so it has hit our school hard. This is the second vehicle accident death this year for our school. Please everyone give your kids a big hug and tell them you love them every time they leave the house. I tell my S all the time I love him however now he is getting a big hug too. He may not like it but it will happen every time he gets ready to walk out that door. Please keep our little school in your thoughts and prayers today.
On Common App if college allows, which one should we upload?