No wonder college admissions seems so random sometimes - high schools are so different. It is almost impossible to graduate early where we are. Most seniors are taking a ton of APs because of the prereqs (For instance, you can’t take AP Chem unless you have taken Honors Chem first) and space available. At my daughter’s school they have 6 classes a day - but there are actually 8 class spots that rotate over 8 days. 1.5 of her 8 are study halls. As a senior privilege if their study hall falls first or last they can come late or leave early. But as it rotates it is not consistent.
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I find it so interesting all the different ways high schools set up their schedules. Our local public school had seven periods during the day, but one of those was lunch – I think you could have lunch 3rd, 4th or 5th period. And there was a morning flex time built in, too. But the classes didn’t change at all – you had the same six classes every day for the entire semester or year. There was no 0 period offered.
My daughters’ private school also has seven periods, not including lunch and flex time and what not. But the classes rotate, so you only go to five classes every day. They just call them A through G days, so on A, periods 1 through 5 meet, on B it’s 6, 7, 1, 2, 3 – then C is 4, 5, 6, 7, 1 – and so on. Supposedly it helps with not having, say, math always right after lunch when you’re sleepiest, or something.
I know other high schools in our county have block schedules, but I’m not familiar with those.
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We have various wild things wandering around our town (and in our backyard, lol, see my bobcat photo in the nature thread!) c26’s elementary school had one or two lockdowns when a coyote wandered onto the grounds.
Rant incoming: 4-hour Saturday choreography practices for the spring musical. Okaaaay but do you really have to have one the weekend before finals??!! WTH
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Our block schedule has shortened periods 1-7 on Mondays then longer ones T/Th and W/Fr. W/F includes “academy”, where students sign up to particular classes (or get assigned to them by teachers) to catch up on work, get help if needed, or take tests they missed if absent. It is also when the peer tutoring takes place - tutors like C26 have one regular academy period a week, and the other they are assigned to a class to tutor. (Not having grown up here I don’t know if this “academy” is the same as “study hall”).
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We have block schedules too. A-H days. I’m constantly surprised that the kids can keep track of which letter day it is and when and where they are supposed to at any given time. I thought my freshman son would never figure it out, but he did, easily. And they aren’t allowed to have their phones out during school anymore, so it wasn’t because he had an app to tell him where to go. I do think it’s helpful for the classes to rotate times of day to accommodate different kids’ strengths and weaknesses, both in subjects and circadian rhythms.
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This does not sound dramatic at all!
At D’s school- there are 8 periods, but you are only scheduled for 6 (only are supposed to have 7 if you need to catch up or have missing requirements)
D26 ‘accidently’ got 7 classes in tenth grade.
They had not put her in a 2nd year foreign language but put her in photography instead. When we ask them to change that - they put her in her language class during her free period but forgot to take her out of photography 
.
By the time they discovered it (D26 wasn’t going to point it out)- they ‘let’ her just stay in it. (it wasn’t discovered until they had started looking at 2nd semester schedules 
That small mistake did in fact change her trajectory- not for what she plans to study in college- but for what she is looking for in her school experience and much of her other life experiences. She has become very passionate about dark room photography to the point that it really does seep into everyday life for her (she is even getting into refurbishing antique cameras- using her current engineering class to 3-d print parts and using the lathes to make other missing pieces- or at least trying to )
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Our school handles make-up tests, peer tutoring, and similar stuff after school in the 3:45-4:45 pm hour. Every teacher is required to have a ‘student hour’ at least once a week (similar to a professor’s office hours) where anybody can come in for help on something for a class you have with that teacher. My kids have used that a lot over the years and there’s no negative social stigma to going to ‘student hours.’ Student hours also happen in that same 3:45-4:45 pm time frame as peer tutoring & make up tests do.
All those differences are crazy. We fall in the early start time and block schedule category. School runs from 7:30am to 2:40pm and kids have 4 classes per semester. No study hall.
Before the new school opened last year, S26’s bus came at 5:45am!! It was brutal. The new school is so much closer and now he drives himself anyway (and collects other neighborhood students to take on his way). He gets up at 7am and rolls out the door at 7:10 
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Our high school uses a block schedule. In the middle of each day, every student has an hour (separated into two 30-minute blocks) which students can use to eat, visit teachers, take music lessons, make up tests, use as a study hall, etc. It works very well, I think.
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Okay, that is pretty cool! I love hearing stories about how small things end up being significant in a kid’s life. (Although, kind of hilarious about the mistake in her schedule, lol.)
For my D26, her school offers a class called “pre-first” – for kids coming out of kindergarten who aren’t quite mature enough to go to first grade. Mine was academically strong, but her ADHD and anxiety meant she was also a hot mess, lol. Also she has a summer birthday, and private schools here really love students to be on the older side. So they suggested pre-first for her.
We waffled a lot about it – there’s really no stigma at her school, and the class offers its own unique experience – but she’s a twin, and her brother was in a different special-ed school but still progressing through the normal grades. We worried about them being in different years. Plus, she was crazy tall (she’s now almost 6’1” and hit 6 feet by age 11 or 12), and we didn’t want the difference to be even more pronounced by holding her back a year.
But we decided to do it anyway. And then when she hit 5th grade – first year of middle school at her school – they changed how the electives were offered. Previously the students only took two, but now you had to take three. She would have taken art and drama and called it done, but now she also had to add either band or chorus.
She chose band, and that changed her entire school experience – she fell in love with clarinet, and it led to taking band every year, plus marching band starting in 7th grade, which I think truly saved her. She’s a quirky kid, doesn’t fit in well at her conservative, preppy school – but band has always been inclusive and welcoming, and it really became her haven.
If we hadn’t sent her to pre-first, she would have been in 5th a year earlier and never would have taken band. I think about that all the time!
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Like University of Chicago’s ED 0
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My daughter is planning on social work major and there is a long list of places for her.
I would speak to people in the department you are interested in. Central Mich seems to be very well respected in the area and students are getting internships. A car will most likely be needed the last 2 years though.
My college junior son goes to school at Syra cuse and all of his internships have been here at home during the summers (we live 12 hours away from the college).
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So D26 did a thing 
At the RIT open house a couple of weekends ago, they said that all attendees could still apply under EA or ED1 even though the Nov 1st deadline had passed (gave a 2-week extension)
After much deliberation- she reached out to see if she could switch to ED1 (had already submitted the application under EA) and the answer was yes 
So now we wait!!!
UL had given her a deadline for accepting her admission offer that falls into the beginning of December- so we are hoping that we hear from RIT by then
Historically- RIT ED1 decisions start rolling out mid to end of Nov so really hoping that this trend continues this year!!
She really loved RIT but it was a still a tough choice between UL and RIT.
If RIT denies her admissions- she will be off to UL instead. Not a bad situation to be in
We did go to the Colorado School of Mines open house (Discover Mines) this last weekend to give the school one last go.
The open house was very well done. Would recommend it over a regular tour to anyone who is considering this school.
This school is still an awesome fit for D26- but at some point, you have to rank them and it doesn’t beat out her first 2 choices.
We all felt after it was over that we were on a farewell tour. This school has been on her list since middle school, so it feels sad/nostalgic to watch it drop out of top choice.
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My D26 leaves for school at 5:15am 3 mornings a week for practice. I’m so glad she started driving herself…
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OMGosh! That is so exciting – crossing my fingers for her that it turns out exactly as she’s hoping! I know ED at RIT comes with priority choice for housing, which is great. Mine considered it after loving our tour in Feb, but she just wasn’t ready to make a decision.
There’s a world in which our girls might both land at RIT and be besties. 
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OMG!! How exciting! Fingers crossed that it all goes according to (this really great) plan!
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We were talking today -and she said she could always do study abroad for a year if she needed a change! And yes - there is always summertime for interesting internships in different locations!
Excited for her! Sounds like she has many wonderful options!! Fingers crossed for RIT! (But also nothing wrong with UL!!)
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Yep. Painful. All three of my kids have dealt with this. And sitzprobe at 8 a.m. on a Saturday is the worst.
Central Michigan is not the school for everyone (as it is more on the rural suburban side yet is a true college town with many easily accessible shops and amenities) but I continue to be surprised and impressed. I have met several very proud alumni who continue to come back and support the school and their grads. Add in that its a smaller medium sized walkable campus with D1 sports and big school spirit (and no communal bathrooms) and it was perfect for my daughter. I think she said her biggest class has maybe 40 kids in it. She feels her professors have been approachable and helpful. She has joined 2 clubs and met many nice kids. Important to her was campus and surrounding area safety and diversity and options within her majors of interest. And we are only paying 8k total all in for the year for her due to scholarships, merit, and federal aid. It’s been a win-win for us.
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