Pokémon clubs would be a big draw for my kid too, lol. That was part of why RIT was so appealing – so many nerdy clubs.
We’re touring Miami of Ohio over spring break, and although perhaps diametrically opposed in terms of culture to RIT, we discovered they formed a governing body called the “League of Geeks” to oversee all the individual nerdy clubs. 
This seems promising!
D26 has a column for “video game orchestra” 
Edited to add: if you haven’t heard of these, a lot of schools have them. For example here’s the gamer orchestra at S23’s school: The Intermission Orchestra | Instagram, Facebook | Linktree and here’s another example at UMD: https://umd.gamersymphony.org
My husband was a fairly accomplished violinist but did not want to do a conservatory program in college. Not sure if this is still the case, but he ended up at Indiana University because IU allowed him to play/participate in the orchestra (even though he was not a music major/conservatory student) while pursing other degrees. I believe IU’s Jacobs School of Music is fairly well ranked too.
We jokingly added a “scrubs color” column to our spreadsheet because my D26 is interested in nursing and has oddly strong opinions about scrub color.
D26 will get her schedule this summer, but is hoping for:
AP French
AP Chem or AP Bio (whichever will fit into her schedule)
AP Calc AB or AP Stats
AP Lang
AP Gov
They’ll be a study hall in there, too.
My concerns- she would prefer Calc to Stats, but if she doesn’t take Stats, then it knocks her out of a special distinction certificate which she’s done all the other work for, but I do think Calc looks more rigorous than Stats- any thoughts on that?
Second, she’s in a regular English class now and it’s terrible- kids goof off, group work is awful, thus the AP Lang for next year. At her school, Lang is typically a Jr year course, but she would prefer it to AP Lit (the typical Sr class), as she feels it will help her more with college writing. Any problems with taking what’s normally a “Jr level” AP? Hopefully an AO won’t care, and she definitely doesn’t want to be in regular English again- it’s basically half of the football team who just goof off the entire time. You really couldn’t pay me any amount of $ to go back to HS 
Yes! This was hugely appealing to my D26 – Home - Game Symphony Orchestra | RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology)
Speaking of game music, she played a version of Baba Yetu (from Civ IV) in middle school district honor band, and since then, this has become our favorite thing on the planet –
(Sorry, totally a tangent, I don’t know if links are allowed, nor do I know how to remove the preview)
At our school, both AP Lit and AP Lang are senior-year classes – you have to choose one. I really doubt taking AP Lang as a senior would look bad to AOs.
As far as Calc vs. Stats, that’s tougher – Calc is seen as the far more rigorous class, and Stats is seen as an “easier” AP. Our school gave my D22 a hard time because she took Calc BC as a junior and really didn’t want to take Multivariable as a senior, but they wouldn’t let her “step down” to Stats. (And now she’s having to take it in college to apply for a potential grad program, and she’s still salty, lol.)
I’d hate for her to give up that certificate, though. She could consider dropping the study hall to take both Calc and Stats (but, ugh).
My husband was born in Stellenbosch nice to see it make an appearance here, in whatever form!
SchooLinks it is! They finally announced the new platform today.
I don’t think taking Lang over Lit senior year should be an issue, but yes, Calc is considered more rigorous than Stats. What’s the certificate? Sounds interesting!
Same here. Although D26 is submitting her preferences today at school, we won’t know for sure what she gets until just before the school year starts in August.
The differences from 1 high school to another are so interesting!
At our HS, if you take an AP class, getting AP credit on your GPA does not require taking the AP exam. But if you DO take the AP exam and you get a 1 or a 2, it brings your overall grade for the class down. And if you get a 3, 4, or 5 on the AP exam, it brings your grade up.
They also require you to take, 6 AP exams before graduation. 1 must be in English, 1 in History, 1 in Calculus, and 1 in a science with the other 2 in any subject. Students must pass 1 AP exam with a 3 or higher.
And this year, they’re highly discouraging students from taking AP Calc AB and AP Stats in the same school year. The course catalog says that you need administration’s approval to do that…this wasn’t a rule for this academic year, so that must have changed.
All of our HS’s classes are year-long.
Wow, I’ve never heard of a school requiring AP classes for graduation, let alone 6! I would guess it’s a small percentage of students in our class that are taking 6 or more APs. My daughter took 8 total and graduated 4th in her class. Exam scores are not factored into grades at all.
I wonder why. My daughter took BC and Stats in the same year, and my son hopes to do the same. Though both are pretty much limited to seniors at our school. And kids take either AB or BC senior year at our school (if they’re taking Calc at all, that is); there is no AB junior year to BC senior year progression like there seems to be in some schools.
Our school only offers either honors or AP in a subject (not both), and no 9th grade classes in either honors or AP. According to the last school profile, the average student graduates with 7.4 honors/AP classes. I know some students have done absolutely none, so others must be doing a lot … And 89% of AP test scores are 3, 4 or 5. (37% are a 5. That seems pretty good to me for a large public high school?) C26 will have less than average due to prior issues with ADHD /figuring path out.
AB is a prerequisite for BC at our school.
OK, I had to go down the rabbit hole (because I, too, have ADHD) and found that just under 80 percent of AP scores at our small public high school were 3s, 4s, or 5s. So yes, I’d say those are excellent results for a large school. (On the downside, I found in the same report that only 14 percent of AP Physics 1 test takers in our school scored a 3, 4, or 5, so S26 may be in for some rough news come July.)
APs are primarily for juniors and seniors here (a couple are available to sophomores, but none in 9th grade), but we do have honors equivalents/alternatives for most. Thus, most kids are maxing out at 8-10, which still seems like a lot to me.
I find the differences interesting, too. In our local public schools, it’s very common for kids to take 12 to 14 AP classes – students will take them over the summer, and taking the AP exam is not required. Students can take them starting freshman year, too.
My D26’s private school limits total number of AP classes taken to 6 (you don’t have to take any) – but strong students can petition to take more. The first allowed AP is APUSH during sophomore year – general rule of thumb is one in 10th grade, two in 11th grade and three in 12th grade. Many classes are offered at both honors and AP level (but not all). Honors classes are weighted 4 points, and AP classes are weighted 8 points. (At our public schools, both honors and AP classes are weighted 7 points.) And oh, if you take the class, you must take the exam, but it doesn’t affect your grade in the class. (How would that even work, because AP exam scores aren’t released until July, and that’s long after transcripts are finished?)
I’m exhausted thinking of the kids that have nothing but APs in high school. My D22 had seven plus Multivariable calculus (which is a post-AP and weighted similarly). My D26 is planning to take the maximum six, plus a weighted STEM Seminar class if all goes according to her plan. That seems to be plenty to me.
Also, my D22 was on the fastest math track, so she went from Honors Pre-Calc straight to Calc BC as a junior, then had Multivariable Calc. My D26 started on this track but didn’t love Honors Pre-Calc (more that the teacher didn’t love her, lol) – so she was recommended to go to Calc AB this year as a junior. She’ll have BC next year. This is working out well, as she loves her AB teacher, and I’m hoping it makes BC is little smoother (that class is hard!).
Yikes, my D26 also has AP Physics 1 this year, and she is NOT vibing with the class. The first teacher – who was terrible – resigned (or more likely was asked to resign, but no one knows the details) over Thanksgiving break, so it’s just been a mess of a class.
A lot of colleges don’t even give credit for Physics 1, or just elective credit, so I’m trying not to get too worked up over it!
That’s about where most kids max out at our school, too. (Large public HS.) We also have very limited honors. Most classes in 9th and 10th are required, and are not designated honors. Math has two tracks (with one track being faster), but both are considered non-honors. 9th grade Physics is non-honors. 10th grade Chemistry does have an AP option. Otherwise, AP and honors classes generally start in 11th grade.
Same here with Physics 1. S26 is not loving the class or the teacher, who has more of a project-based teaching style. I appreciate not simply teaching to the test, but it’s just not working for my kiddo (and apparently lots of others, based on the low pass rate). He will likely end up with his first B in the class. I’m not worried about the grade or the exam score, which he simply won’t submit, but he’s definitely ready to be done with physics.
Thanks- that’s helpful! I didn’t want college AOs to think she was taking a step backwards in English, so it’s helpful to know that Lang is taken senior year in other schools.