@Boilermom So your kids have eight slots for classes plus lunch? Our kids can take seven plus lunch but one is gym, so it’s only six academic/elective classes per day. Take (1) math (2) science (3) social studies (4) English (5) foreign lang and that leaves us one class. Plus the kids have to choose “elective arts” classes for two years (music, art, technology education, or business classes). Add one mandatory Econ class and one mandatory Government class and that about sums it up.
We have so many cool social studies and English classes (African American history, constitutional law, East Asian studies, rhetoric, British Lit, film studies…the options go on and on) but no one has space for any of those if the student is going to college prep route in each subject. And, because of the “elective arts” requirement, a student can’t even find much space to double up for science or another main subject! Our D21 would love to take additional English classes but she had to take cooking this year for a crazy requirement! She’s not interested in the art, music, or business classes so cooking it is!
Hyperventilating a bit here—D19’s ACT scores finally came in today and she got a 30, after having never gotten better than a 27 on any practice tests she took, and that was only once.
If UAH keeps their current merit scholarships for next year. that squeaks in as enough to guarantee her their 100% tuition scholarship. This is, to put it mildly, a Big Deal.
@homerdog that schedule sounds rough. Yes we technically can take 8 classes plus lunch (we are on a A/B day schedule so they take 4 classes on A day and 4 on B day) We also don’t have mandatory art class. We do have gym but its only 1 time for all of high school and if you play a sport or are on dance team or cheer that counts for your gym credit. A lot of kids who aren’t in sports tend to choose to take gym in the summer (6 hours a day for 2 weeks and done) Our district offers that option for gym, speech and health class. We do have mandatory 1/2 year of government & 1/2 year econ senior year required.
I am very thankful for all the room for electives we have it has allowed both my Ds to explore some career options. It definetly helped older daughter decided between graphic design, architecture and pharmacy. 1 month into architecture class she knew it wasn’t for her, she loved graphic design but in the 2 nd year they start working with actual clients and she said she still loved to design but not the working with clients part (people with no art experience telling you how to make art), fell in love with pharmacy and its a great class that lets them earn their pharm. tech certificate as part of class.
I logged on to Naviance after several weeks of not looking at it.
Meanwhile, S19 created his Common App account. This is a first as I had created and owned S17’s Common App account. I had added ~20 colleges to Naviance “colleges I’m considering.” S19’s counselor add a few, (Rutgers, really?) and S19 added a bunch. Now there are 40 colleges to wade through. Oh boy.
The problem with the AP classes in our school is that we are on an A/B day schedule with 4 classes a day so in theory you have 8 class slots, but many APs are every day classes so they take up 2 slots. Kiddo is also in the magnet classes, which take up 2 slots. Science and foreign language were squeezed out this year.
@payn4ward 40 colleges is a lot! I checked Naviance and my son is currently considering 0 colleges.
His GC has offered optional college planning meetings starting in March and it looks like she might have space for maybe 1/4 of her rising seniors. She specifically asked that students set up the appointment, but noted that parents may attend. I think some arm-twisting is in order. Maybe she can at least give him an idea of which VA colleges might take him and look at a preliminary list if he can come up with one by April. Baby steps!
@eh1234 I think those meetings with GCs can be worth it. It’s worth a shot anyway. All juniors at our school get a two hour meeting and some of my friends have had them already. Thought the meetings were helpful since they got a better idea of their student’s chances based on our school’s history. We have Naviance but the GCs seem to share more info like who was an athlete or if the student had other hooks. Some of the GCs have years of knowledge and see trends that can help gauge the student’s chances. It’s so important to know that info in order to make a good list.
I think some of them are good at matching up a student’s preferences with schools. The kids are asked to fill out a fairly lengthy form about themselves and what they might be looking for in a college.
I sent a list of questions ahead of time to our GC but our meeting isn’t until April. After talking to a friend who had her meeting yesterday, I already get a sense of S19’s chances at two schools on his list. I have them as matches but my friend was told they were safeties for her son and, if that’s the case, then I’m pretty sure she will tell us the same thing about S19. That could help us narrow his list for sure.
Good luck to those with zero schools and with 40 schools! We are hovering around 20…
Our school’s GC is far more adept at getting kids into blue collar technical training programs and community college. than to 4 year residential college. We just live in that sort of neighborhood, sigh. She is always happy to meet with me if I have any questions. She is very excited to have a student who is enthusiastic and ambitious with colleges, Most of the kids in our school don’t have the familial support to go anywhere beyond.
It frustrates the heck out of me. I get to know these kids, I know they’re bright and capable, brighter than some of the kids I went to college with. But their story ends at high school graduation, they will stay in the same town their parents grew up in and work a low income hourly job.
We have 5 definites and 16 maybes. Those final three slots are an ever-rotating cast of characters, near, far, university, small LAC, US, foreign. I’m not too worried, kiddo could possibly change a lot in the next 10 months.
We have 7 periods a day plus lunch. There is a zero hour but the only people I know who have used have used it for sports - not sure what classes are offered then as D19 would never voluntarily get up earlier! Right now she is trying to figure out her classes for next year - she already had to turn in the selection sheet but it isn’t too hard to move things around as it gets closer. Last night she thought she came up with a way to get out of school every day after 4th period - take 4 classes at school, 1 online class, 1 duel enrollment at the local college and 1 free period. I told her I wasn’t too sure about that!
I just checked our school profile - they offer 29 APs and 29 AICE classes. D will probably end up graduating with 9-11 APs and about the same in AICE? I know I figured it out once but can’t remember now.
@momtogkc and @homerdog, 100 years ago, I applied ED to William and Mary, went there and loved it. Perfect school for me. We visited with D19, paired with Busch Gardens which was a huge hit. I’m not sure what she thought–I wanted to be careful not to influence or pressure her. Many upsides for D’s personality.
Potential downsides would be:
D may prefer no Greek scene.
She would like guaranteed on campus housing all four years (I agree with her on this one).
We would be OOS.
Heat. We went in late September and it was above 85 at midday.
@Sailaway Thanks for the info! What’s the living situation? Do most kids move off campus after a couple of years? I will have to investigate more about the Greek life. I assumed it wasn’t the same a scene Greek life like you find ar big state schools.
16 APs offered here. D19 will have taken 8, I believe, by the end of senior year.
There are also 29 dual enrollment courses offered. D will have taken 9-10 (it depends on which English courses fit into her schedule) by the end of next year.
Our high school has 26-28 APs and I think dual-enrollment is only available for two classes offered online. All the other DEs are “career and technical education” classes.
S19 just returned from all-state orchestra auditions at James Madison U and thought Harrisonburg was pretty grim. He’s also just generally cranky from messing up one of his audition pieces a bit (although he mentioned that other people said they had problems with the same difficult excerpt). Think I’ll let him take a nap and ask him about the campus later, but I doubt that he saw much. Considering that we live in a state with so many in-state options, he doesn’t seem all that interested in the VA schools!