Here in FL there is a one year PE requirement. I believe you can do it online. We didn’t have to worry about it because the requirement is waived if you do the AICE diploma.
I asked the GC if D’s schedule would be considered most rigorous. By the time she graduates she will have between 9-11 AP classes and the AICE diploma which I think is 7-8 AICE classes. It sounds like lot but there are kids who have taken more for sure. The GC did say she would be considered most rigorous though so that is nice.
@RightCoaster I was up there over Christmas and New Years - that was the coldest December we had had in MA in a long time. We had pictures from last year of the kids doing a little hike in the woods - my S23 was wearing shorts!
Popping in to comment on the which APs question for an aspiring engineer. I have a DS16 that took principles (java) as a HS freshman and AP computer science A as a sophomore. He found it very useful to his college programming assignments. He tutored many that had no exposure and needed help with terminology, basic concepts, etc. He highly recommends at least some exposure in HS. DS also took AP Chem, AP Physics, AP Stats, AP Govt and AP English as a senior. We drew the line at the 2 sciences + AP Calc BC as being too much. Engineering programs told us they prefer you take your calculus there and he had Calc AB as a junior. Had no issues with picking the Calc back up in college. Having AP credit for Chem made his first semester much easier. YMMV.
@homerdog yes, you have to list your senior year schedule on the Common App. If you apply EA some schools wan 1st quarter grades too.
That gives the schools a chance to see if the kid is taking a hard schedule senior year and how they are handling it.
My son17 took harder and harder schedules throughout HS. His senior year schedule was pretty rigorous, but I don’t he was considered " most rigorous". He still got into some decent schools, but he was not targeting tip top type schools.
Thanks @cheeringsection. Your post is very helpful. Based on that, I feel better about my son just taking Calc AB. I’ll encourage him to take AP Chem and CS, but I don’t think he’ll let go of AP Physics 2, and that still puts him at 8 classes and 7 slots. Ah well, he’ll figure something out. He has orchestra and really wants to take AP music theory, so he doesn’t have as many openings as he would like. He’s not necessarily an aspiring engineer, but that seems more likely than a lot of majors and I can see him at least starting there.
I’m pretty nervous about my kid’s proposed senior year schedule: DE Multivar Calculus, AP Physics C, AP Gov or Ap Gov/Comparative Gov, English honors, AP Latin, DE Geospatial Analysis, and Band.
It’s a pretty ambitious schedule but with this kid the highest correlation between high grades and course taken is based on high interest level in the topic and low amount of perceived busy work. So I’ll probably sign off on it with fear and trembling.
For those considering AP Comp Sci, I’d ask around (or have your kid ask around) about how good the course is at your school. Good Comp Sci teachers are nearly impossible to find at the high school level (given their high employability for more lucrative positions). D16 asked around and heard that at our school it was taught by a coach and veered between mind numbing busy work and arbitrarily toughly graded assignments. She choose to self study programming instead using CodeAcademy. She had no trouble getting into colleges with scholarships and is now a straight A Sophomore Computer Science major. So I’d agree that some coding background is very useful to a STEM major kid but disagree that it has to be a formal AP class in high school.
S19 took the PE online right before freshman year and yeah, just passed. If a school wants to deny him admission for that one C… Freshman year they take 1/2 year health and 1/2 year Government, unless they take AP human geography or get into AP gov. S19 was in all honors classes that he could freshman/sophomore year. I so wish they had honors World. Only onlevel or AP. Since he is Mathish, we decided against it. This year he is taking APUSH, AP comp Sci, AP Calc AB, and AP physics. and a Lit class, along with Self directed study, which he is studying C/C++. . Next year he will take AP Lang, AP Stat, AP physics C, and both AP Econs. He will also do an internship, and continue being on the TEch support team for a period. Because he got HS credit in 8th grade, and took latin one summer (to help with SAT/ACT), he has more than enough credits. They did not offer AP comp sci principles when he took the similar class freshman class (it was not called an AP class). That probably hurt him. At this point, whatever happens happens. Based on what I have seen with our state Flagships, its too competitive to happen for him. They also want to see great EC’s which he doesnt have.
D17 was an non mathy as one gets. She only made it to the equiv of precalc, and only ever took one AP class, APUSH, but her Senior year was fully duel enrollment with 8 total classes at the local CC. She did fine. Her major is poly sci.
I don’t understand how taking PE online would even work. It sounds like a dream to nonathletic me - I might have enjoyed PE if it didn’t involve all those in-shape people and mean coaches and having to change in the locker room with all those smells.
@ninakatarina . they give you something similar to a fitbit, and at least 3 times a week you have to do 30+ minutes of recorded exercise. the device uploads through USB I believe and your grade is based partly on this. There is also an academic portion about healthy eating, etc., what exercise does, and so on. I have heard stories of kids putting it on their dog and letting them out to play :).
@mom23travelers. That’s good advice. My kid is unlikely to self-study coding (or anything except maybe piano), but I will have him check around to make sure that AP CS isn’t being taught by a wrestling coach or something. The school just had an electives fair where he could have asked questions and met some teachers, but he opted to check out a class that he knew he was definitely going to take, taught by a teacher he already knows. Sigh.
@ninakatarina My D16 did online 9th grade PE in summer school and it nearly killed her. It was four weeks long. For those 4 weeks she had an hour of class online everyday, either 7am or 7pm, If you missed more than 2 classes for any reason, immediate fail. That really tied us down. There was a 2 hour long in person physical fitness test at the beginning and end of the course so you still had the fun and embarrassment of performing in front of your peers. The real killer was that she was given a heart rate monitor and required to do 90 minutes of exercise 6 days a week for those 4 weeks. In order to count her heart rate had to be in the target heart rate zone so warm up and warm down time didn’t count. In addition those 90 minutes could only be in 30, 60, or 90 minute increments, so no splitting it up into 45 minute sessions. And for a final project she had to demonstrate proficiency in two sports of her choice and mastery of another. This had to be done by putting together a video of herself doing and explaining a long list of skills. She had no sports background so she was starting from scratch in all three sports. She picked swimming as the sport she had mastery in despite the fact that she could only doggy paddle. She ended up teaching herself the stokes via youtube. So all that time learning to swim properly was exercise that was also going on but didn’t count for the 90 minutes because she couldn’t wear the heart monitor.
In contrast my other two took PE in school and as long as you showed up for every class dressed in uniform and did your best to follow instructions and at least look like you were trying you passed with an A. Easy peasy.
D19 took online PE during freshman year. Her first semester was volleyball season, so her PE credit was from volleyball.For second semester, she switched to online PE, where she just had to maintain a log of her athletic activities. However, since she was in club volleyball, she just logged her practices and game time and easily got to the required number of hours. IIRC, she also had to show up to a couple of tests to prove that she could run a certain time.
Thankful our school has choices for PE and that its only 1 year. They will allow you credit if you play sports, (including what they call off campus PE ie: play a sport like figure skating or gymnastics or club volleyball,etc) school sport, dance(the school dance team or school dance class not outside dance), cheer, also have class options such as Partners PE where the student is partnered with a physically challenged student, sports medicine class, athletic trainer class, adventure/outdoor education, weightlifting, aerobic fitness. So many choices for those not into traditional sports.
@eh1234 DS17 took AP Chem junior year, but got a 3 in the AP exam, so he was not able to use it for credit nor placement. (This one does not study for exams) He is taking Chemistry both semesters during freshman year at UT.
DS19 took AP Chem sophomore year and got a 4 in the AP exam, so he will be able to get a credit where allowed. Different kids different outcomes.
I guess DS was lucky that all computer science courses at his HS are taught by the AP Calc BC teacher. He is VERY qualified. None of the coaches that I have met would do as well.
@payn4ward Regardless of the AP score, I bet your DS17 had an easier time in chemistry than he would have with out the AP class. I’ll suggest that my kid give it a go and if he gets credit, great. (Although he isn’t really one to study for exams either - sometimes it doesn’t seem to matter that much).
I never realized the struggle some of your kids face to complete phys ed. They make the kids do phys ed at our school, and it might even be a minimum of 1/2 year, grades 9-12. They mix it up every term, and I think one year they need to take a health class too, it’s good, keeps the kids moving. They learn about their bodies, what to eat, the importance of exercise. In senior year they have an outdoors kind of class, and they go hiking in the woods, use a ropes course, play some outdoor games etc. Anything to get the kids outside and off their phones!!
At our school full IB students always get “most rigorous” checked. My oldest (2013) was full IB. My son (2016) did not do IB but instead took 14 AP classes including 2 through Virtual Virginia. I asked his counselor what he was going to mark and he stated “most rigorous”. My youngest is taking 4 APs now, has 1 from 10th grade and will probably take 4 next year. I need to ask her counselor what she plans to mark on the common app.
Only 2 years of health/ PE required in VA so kiddo was done in 10th.
How many classes do your kids take at a time? Our system is 8 classes on an A/B block schedule (4 per day).
@RightCoaster the sporty kids enjoy PE, so it’s not bad to them.
Generally, they are a big part of what ruins it for my kid though. The sport teams are used to playing together and hanging out. They tend to be good at most of the gym units. That tends to make it more likely they they get impatient with the nonathletes and sometimes flat out openly mock them. My d doesn’t mind PE so much when the competitive kids are separated a bit from the less competitive kids. When that happens, she actually enjoys most of the classes.
@Dragonflygarden we have 9 periods per day, 40 minutes each. Most classes are every day, aside from PE which is 2/5 days one semester and 3/5 the other semester. I think the counselors suggest the kids choose 7 classes, including PE, per semester. That leaves a lunch period and a study hall. My d and her friends (probably most of the more ambitious kids) always choose 8 classes per semester.
Most classes stay the same all year (aside from the number of PE days per week) except health classes and a handful of electives that are only one semester classes.
Our school lets a parent sign a waiver saying that they’re in a sport and get exercise during the off season, so my girls will have 0 high school PE and that’s great with them. DD’17 ran track and went to State all 4 years, DD’19 plays soccer. Maybe they don’t exercise all that much in off season, but they are healthy weight. They aren’t particularly skilled in volleyball, basketball, whiffleball, etc. No reason to put them through the misery of PE!
@Dragonflygarden our schedule is exactly like yours. I like having the A/B schedule, because if there’s an activity one night, you always will have the next night to work on homework. Assuming you don’t have activities two nights in a row…
DD’s schedule is going to be a breeze next year, just regular classes, no AP and no math. We’re both looking forward to it. She’s having a tough time this year balancing homework and activities. I’ve tried to get her to quit cheer so she can have more time for homework and less time with a certain rude cheerleader who’s been upsetting her. But she hates to quit something. I hate to see the nightly tears.
Friday night the speech kids are performing all their contest events for family, and then contest on Saturday. She’s not confident in her musical theatre duet partner- I hope he comes through for her on this. And I don’t know how the one act is going. She could really use a perk in her life right now so I hope one or both go to state.