My son is in his freshman year with a block schedule and by the end of the year will have English, IM 2, Biology, Pe, Video/Film, Composition, Intro to Engineering and AP Human Geography (the only AP offered to freshmen). Currently he is projected to earn all A’s except possibly a B in biology.
He is not sure of his long term goals. He wants to go to a 4 year college. Interested in stats, business, accounting, finance but hasn’t completely ruled out engineering or computer science either. Strengths are math/problem solving, weakest area is writing.
The most advanced freshman took harder classes, some took classes at the junior college just to get a few GE requirements and the higher 9th graders took IM 3 and Precalculus and honors English, other than that not much else different. So in class ranking my kid is likely to be top 20% but not 10%.
It’s time to select sophomore classes and need help :
He has to have:
PE
Health
English (regular is a better for for him)
IM3
Precalculus (if they allow 2 math, didn’t for us last year but about 70% of others did)
That leaves a choice of physics, chemistry or honors chemistry. Any pros or cons to each?
World Cultures OR AP World History (leaning towards world since it is the only AP class for sophomore year I see that works for him)
Then that would leave only space for 1 Elective:
- Speech and Debate 1
- Engineering Technology 2
- a community college class for American Sign Language (would be on line) but could do it later.
- a dual enrollment class called College Success where it happens at the high school but get college credit and taught by college professor. It is more of a time management, note taking, exploring what fields/jobs you might excel in, etc. My son would likely greatly benefit from it, but not sure it means he has a less rigorous schedule and he could complete it later or over the summer, it sounds super easy.
I have asked him his input and he is kinda clueless. He is on spectrum so is uncomfortable networking and asking older kids who might have opinions/experience. He has looked on line and he thought AP World would work. Definitely wants to avoid honor or AP English. Has no preference with physics or chemistry, he has more general knowledge of physics already but no honors physics and he has heard AP Physic is crazy hard. He likes the idea of honor chemistry in order to have more serious students but doesn’t know much about chemistry and he thinks he is unlikely to use either in college. If he went with engineering then physics may make more sense
Any guidance/thoughts/experience?
Jenn
The lack of foreign language will prove problematic down the road , regardless of HS requirements and regardless of his IEP, if applicable. ASL or Latin are solid choices for those who struggle in other foreign languages
For science, I’d follow the school’s curriculum map, which likely means chem. Whether he would thrive in honors chem isn’t something I can judge. And then do physics the following year
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Based on your user name - if Calif colleges are an option - don’t forget about the arts requirement. Agree that the lack of a 2nd language will be an issue - he needs to meet state grad requirements plus many colleges want to see beyond that number. Can you speak with his hs counselor to truly understand the best course of action for him and his learning style while meeting the requirements for optimal college choice.
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Video/film meets that requirement, assuming the course is production based vs analysis
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We recognize he needs 2 years of language and am planning he does the 2 semesters or possibly 3 semesters at the community college for American Sign Language. My daughter did it and she said it is all memorization and fairly easy so was hoping to save it for junior year/senior year when he might have more challenging classes. There is NO meeting the guidance counselor before classes are picked. I believe each counselor has around 400 students so no access. We are considering hiring someone for that role. The school’s map is not linear, both chem and physics are options and most don’t don’t both unless they use it as an elective. While we live in California I am not sure if he will go to school here in Cali. Admissions are super competitive. He loved the video/film and it did count as an art. Hoping to save the other requirement for junior year to balance the load a bit.
Instead of taking ASL online, I would take a foreign language class such as Spanish, French in HS. CA high school only require 2 years foreign language to graduate, but many college recommend 3 to 4 years. And depends on college, some of them don’t count ASL as foreign language. Good Luck.
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CSUs and UCs require high school year 2 or equivalent for admission, but UCs recommend high school year 3 or equivalent for admission. Some other colleges prefer high school year 4.
Community college course equivalency to high school year level can be found at the UC Doorways web site.
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Regarding physics or chemistry, best would be to take both some time during high school.
Regarding math, IM3 is usually a prerequisite for precalculus. Since he is already one grade ahead in math, he will reach calculus in 12th grade.
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My son is on spectrum and had a speech delay for ages. He used to have to do rosetta stone for foreign language in grade school and HATED it! My older child hated foreign languages also, she only earned 4 B’s in high school and that was 3 of the 4, took 3 years of Spanish and then when she got to college took ASL and it worked for her. My son is very literal and memorizes well but the whole conjugating will make his head spin and I would expect the pronunciation, too. I would guess that if the college needs something besides ASL it might be a dealbreaker. No clue what college he can get into yet, but want to leave the choices as wide open as possible while respecting his requests.
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Didn’t know about UC Doorways, thank you.
Only for some UCs and CSUs.
Most CSUs are not impacted, meaning that they will admit applicants to non impacted majors who complete the course requirements with a 2.5 HS GPA (as recalculated by the CSU method). But the most popular ones like CPSLO, SDSU, CPP, SJSU, CSULB are impacted with competitive admission, and some majors like nursing are commonly impacted at most or all campuses the offer them.
UCs vary in competitiveness for admission. However, UCM and UCR tend to be less competitive for admission than the others.
CSUs do not have foreign language in their general education requirements: PolicyStat :: PolicyStat
UCs vary regarding foreign language graduation requirements, sometimes by division within a campus.
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