Parents of the HS Class of 2019 (Part 1)

Another full load of courses here - hopefully it won’t be too much. It’s pretty unusual for seniors to take a reduced schedule at S19’s HS. So he has AP Gov, AP Calc AB, AP CS Principles, AP Music Theory, English 12, Honors Geosystems, orchestra and jazz band (an “8th period class” that meets after school 4-5 hours per week).

There’s a chance that the pieces won’t fit together when they make up the master schedule and he’ll need to change something around. The only science class he wanted was AP Physics 2 (nope, doesn’t exist despite being “offered”). I think he would be just as happy skipping a fourth year of science and taking a guitar class, which is sort of a free period if you already play guitar. But there is an “advanced” diploma option that most kids seem to aim for and that requires one more year of science.

Nothing is happening on the application front and there is not much of a list so far. Once in a while, I randomly confront him with one of the questions on his student questionnaire for the GC and get a grunt or eye roll in response.

My D19 is taking a graduation requirements-driven course load next year. We are on a 5x3 trimester schedule. It’s supposed to free up extra space in your schedule because a full course takes only 2 of the 3 trimesters. That hasn’t been true for D19 at all, since the school was still on semesters her first two years. Also AP classes take up 3 trimesters (so technically a year and a half’s worth of space), as does choir and all performing arts. So her five spots per trimester fill up easily. She’s got:

AP Statistics
AP Lit
Econ/civics (senior grad requirement)
Physics 1 and 2 (we have no honors version)
PE (two trimesters still to go…one of hers includes weight training which is a giggler for my 105-lb non-athlete…)
Choir

This course load will definitely be easier than the Junior Beast Year.

The University of California system tries to encourage some degree of moderation in high school course loads by limiting how many classes it weights to a mere 4 year-long courses (8 semesters), and weighting an Honors course the same as an AP course. They also do not include freshman or senior grades.

As my late-bloomer husband loves to say, you don’t want to peak too early in life. You don’t actually want to view your life as if your greatest personal performance can/should be in high school. There was a belief building at the college campus where I taught for ten years that students were arriving there completely burned out from 4+ years of intense grade stress and scrutiny, complete with parental micromanagement, and were underperforming as college students as a result. So, I think some moderation is warranted. Still, my D19 feels a touch bad that she “only” has six APs and didn’t take any AP science. It’s a silly sort of selective peer pressure.

Our school district does a program called “What I wish my parents knew” every year in which students are supposed to provide frank discussion of what life is really like for today’s teens. There is always a LOT of discussion about the academic stress, the pressure to succeed, the pressure to keep up and do more and more and more. My D19 knew one of the presenters last year through her church choir and she basically said that she didn’t have a chance to enjoy high school. I’m not sure what the answer is, other than efforts to cap GPAs like what the UCs already do.

All of these challenging senior year course loads make my head hurt just looking at them. There is much to what @SDCounty3Mom says about peaking too early in life and burning out. I would strongly encourage anyone to consider a gap year for their students before starting college. My older son has been doing a gap year this past year, and it’s been the most wonderful experience you could imagine. He had really pushed himself hard in high school (he’s just a natural type A over-achiever). While I know he also would have gone on to do very well in college if he’d gone straight through, this intervening time to recharge his batteries will let him start college really raring to go. And what he’s done during his gap year has also had the benefit of really solidifying in his mind that he made the right choice of colleges, plus helped him narrow his focus on what he intends to study (at least to some extent, though he remains a classic liberal arts kid).

My dd will be availing herself to what is called “option 2” - where kids can do internships in place of a class or some independant study or shadowing. Mainly she’s doing it because the CS class she wanted to take won’t be offered because not enough kids signed up for it and she has finished all the other CS classes offered - so she’s going to take the next 2 courses in the normal sequence at the community college. .

Shoot, I was going to look up DD’s schedule since I knew it was on the transcript the GC sent me. Now the email is gone so I just requested he send it again. I think I must accidentally have other things selected when I hit delete.

I know she is taking:
Botany/Zoology
Workplace Writing
Advanced Music Studies
Choir
DE World Regional Geography
DE World Music
Econ
etc.

She’ll have room for two more classes second semester, or she can not have any classes and leave, but they’re the two middle blocks. I’m going to ask her to take some more DE in case my idea for graduating college a semester early works out.

So, since we’re posting schedules, here’s what my daughter’s looks like for the coming semester:

•Advanced Band
•AP Physics (she helped convince the school to offer it!)
•Precalc (at the local college)
•First-Year Comp Semester 2 (at the local college)[/list]

Second semester will be the same high-school classes, with the college classes being:

•Calc I
•American Government

My d19 is taking a full course load. There are 9 periods per day. One will be either lunch or study hall. That leaves 8 for classes.
She needs for graduation:
PE (no waivers here)
AP Gov
English (she listed 4 1/2 year elective choices for English and will get 2 of them. 2-3 are DE courses)

She is also choosing (and hoping they all can fit in):
Calc 3 (DE)
AP Physics
Forensics (DE)
Spanish 5 (DE)
Computer Science (possibly will prepare her for AP CS)

My D19 also has a full schedule for next year:
Multivariable calc and Linear Algebra
AP Stats
AP English Lang
AP Physics C (both classes)
AP Computer Science
She is happy not to have a foreign language on the to-do list!

S19 will have:
HL Chem
HL Bio (he will not take the Bio HL tests because he has his IB subjects covered, but will take the course)
HL English
HL Film
SL Geography
Student Gov
AP BC Calc
IB Theory of Knowledge/free second semester

And…it’s nice to be endorsed for your road-trip advice by someone whose screen name is @mom23travelers!

On our way soon to tour lots of EC colleges…so exciting! On the list: Vtech, Clemson, Furman (thank you CC folks!), College Charleston, Elon (thanks again!!), U Richmond, Emory. Wanted very much to visit Wake Forest, but S19 didn’t want to. Wanted also to visit William & Mary, but we are OOS and I dont think he has the stats high enough to get in.

Berry in Atlanta is on our second visit for D20 (thank you again CC people!) and a few more…still on the fence - U of Georgia but read that it’s the #1 party school in America LOL. Quinnipiac U when we get back, but I know all about that as my D14 graduated from there with two great job offers in materinity/pediatrics nursing (yey finally paying for stuff!!) and she was a tour guide for 4 years there.

Already toured Stockton U and TCNJ. No Rutgers for us - these 2 kiddos do not like it (2nd kid goes there…and I have one more semester then I graduate with MY Bachelors yahooooooo finally!!! And starting my masters oh yeah!) So if anyone wants any info about these schools, LMK. I have the inside scoop on Rutgers and Quinnipiac.

Do you guys want me to post our thoughts?

@cakeisgreat yes please. Safe travels.

My son won’t know his actual classes until the week before school starts. Drives us a little nuts. Lots of this is requirements driven. But seniors choose English and Social Science seminars…which tend to be like mini college courses. They are BY FAR much better than AP and the kids really love them.

Physics
Calculus
Independent Study Photography
Creative Writing (he hopes)
Conflict in the Modern World (he hopes)
Pyschology (I think)
PE

The schedule suits him well.

Lol. Son’s GC called yesterday to sort out schedule woes for fall. Son was set to take three music classes, dual enrollment English, AP calc BC, and APGov/APEcon, and TA for a music teacher (7 class periods including lunch—he intended to not have a lunch). There was practically no chance this schedule would work. It turns out verything fits except English and TA, which don’t fit at all, no matter what is rearranged He either has to drop the dual enrolllment, lose the college credit, and take a regular english class (ugh) or take the english class at the community college in the afternoon or evening (also not ideal). He’s a future music major and very disappointed not to TA for music.
I’m glad it’s not a surprise the week before school starts. We’re weighing the pros and cons and I have to let the GC know next week. At least he know from past experience that son won’t compromise on the music classes.

@cakeisgreat I’d love to hear about your experiences. We have a few schools in common, and my D10 graduated from Wake (don’t give up on pushing it!). Enjoy your big trip!

We pick classes in March or April, but don’t even know if the schedule will work until the week before school starts in August. D has chosen-

Jazz Ensemble (she tried out and got accepted so she will take this for sure!! She’s so excited)
AP Physics 1
AP Calc A/B
AP Econ/AP Gov
Honors Health 4
D/E Literature online

If there are conflicts, she will roll with it. Drop down to Honors if the APs all don’t work.

I’m with @homerdog with wanting my kids to soak up summer! So nice that they are lounging on D21’s bed right now instead of sitting at their desks, plowing through homework. I should remember to relax too, and connect with D19 while she is on this summertime schedule B-)

She does have a lot going on this summer with a research project, her summer sport, quarter-time job, essay writing, etc., but life finally slowed down, and nothing feels as high stakes as those 1st SAT scores or the final grades for junior year.

Oh, and I don’t really want to think about senior year, but since I enjoyed reading everyone’s different schedules, here’s D19’s:
AP Lit
AP Spanish Lang
AP Gov
AP Physics 2
Pre-calc/differential Calc
Honors Research
Econ (semester)
Outdoor ed. (gym)
Ugh.

And now I’m going to go lounge with the D’s! Endless Summer!

Thanks for all the senior class lists! I’m still not sure what we will do, need to figure that out soon. In the meantime I have been trying to plan a visit to see a few schools on the way to our annual MA/ME vacation. As usual D has no input about any of the schools, but I had about 7 in mind that I thought were nice or that she had mentioned. Unfortunately as I looked at the calendar I realized we are trying to see 7 schools in about 3 days - not going to work. :(( So now I am trying to decide which ones to visit on this trip and which to save for the fall. I was trying to do it all so we wouldn’t have to pay for another flight up north but looks like it is the only way.

D has to read two books this summer and she was already annoyed about them - now we just found out she has homework to go along with the reading. I can see this being another one of those “school starts next week go read everything and spend all night cramming in the homework” type situations. She has to read How to Read Literature Like a Professor and The Picture of Dorian Gray - she especially does not want to read the first one!

My S has to read How to Read Literature… too. D17 read it and was not a fan, so he’s not looking forward to it, at all.

I really wish they would stop giving kids homework over the summer. Is it really necessary to cram a few more books in? These kids are already trying to be productive with every waking minute? Can’t they just get a job or go to camp or do some internship and spend a little time at the pool or the beach or just hanging out with friends? I never once had assigned summer reading and I ended up just fine. More then that, it gave me time to actually read for pleasure.

Not to mention the fact, that our rising Juniors are also trying to do all the college stuff. I’m just so tired for all of them!