<p>jenskate1: cool. Most likely he will also wear his glasses. Five mins. for contacts vs 5 more mins. of sleep - sleep wins.</p>
<p>I’m totally with him on that. You’ll likely see me in my glasses tomorrow as well.</p>
<p>Thanks Simba - This is all good advice for my S…I’m actually going to print your post and save it! </p>
<p>I can’t believe the mistakes we made with my D. We let her take a 1/2 credit of PE and 1/2 credit of health her freshman year and a full credit of on-level desktop publishing (technology requirement) her sophomore year. And currently she has two on-levels…cheer (PE) and Art. But a full year of cheer only counts as a 1/2 credit PE (I guess throwing layouts and backtucks and 100lb flyers 15 feet into the air 2-3 hours minimum every single day is not strenuous enough to be considered real PE…lol) But I wonder if it will only be figured into her rank as a 1/2 credit…sure hope so…could be another ‘silver lining’ if so!</p>
<p>S is definitely on an advanced track. Part of what was done for him at the Meyer Center was a diagnosis of highly gifted in addition to other issues. Gifted is a blessing…highly gifted not necessarily so. We will need to be careful with how he is scheduled and now we will have that edge of also knowing how to protect rank.</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>PS > One other question…did your S take the National Scholars class offered by the district (zero hour)? D tells me it is a 1/2 credit above level A…but it hasn’t shown up on her report card.</p>
<p>No he didn’t take any zero hour classes - sleep has priority. He took it in the summer before the PSAT, but didn’t go for credit. All these courses boost up GPA incrementally, but don’t change the fundamentals. One needs to get rid of the big deficits of on-level classes like foreign languages 1 and 2, speech etc before the 8th grade is finished. </p>
<p>Say for example (assuming you make all As) there are 3 on-level (required) and 3 K-AP courses. The GPA would be 6.5 (3<em>6+3</em>7/6).</p>
<p>Now let us say there are same 3 on-level, and 4 K-AP classes. The GPA would be 6.57 (3<em>6+4</em>7/7). </p>
<p>Now let us say he got rid of one on-level class in MS so he has 2 on-level and 4 K-AP. The GPA in this case would be 6.67 (2<em>6 + 4</em>7/6). </p>
<p>In the second example the numerator increases, but so does the denominator. In the third example only numerator increases, the denominator stays the same, and hence the biggest bang.</p>
<p>In our case he had already started HS with a big deficit with Spanish 2 and he took speech or some other required class in summer (our neighbor did it with her daughter so we did it). He being in Band hurt him some, but not much. It just deprived him of incremental improvements, but it has given him lot more intangible benefits (and it truly has been most exhilarating enrichment). He also developed love and passion for music. In his case, it wouldn’t have mattered even if there was no band, he would have never overcome the course selection in MS. He took spanish 1a in 7th. He disliked the class and the teacher so much that on his own he had gone to the principal and told her to fire the teacher. We were dumb to let it pass. We should have moved him.</p>
<p>Laurensmom: One another thought. If your son does not have interest in any after school activities like band or sport, he should also take the route of taking required on-level classes like PE, art in summer. That will free up his class schedule to take K-AP classes. The incremetal improvements + getting taking HS credit in MS would assure him of his rank.</p>
<p>Simba - Funny you should mention Band. S just started band (percussion) and loves it. He is very musical and like your son is passionate about it. He practices endlessly without prodding from me or my husband. (Started D in band when she was in 6th grade and had to push, push, push to get her to practice…switched her to tumbling at a competitive gym in 7th grade…lol!) So Band will be a given for our S. Question: Is Band I - IV really all on-level? Again, this just defies logic…as much skill as is required, Band should be at least K! (This is coming from a former band girl though! grin!)</p>
<p>We do hope to have S take French I and II prior to end of 8th grade. We learned that one the hard way too. Like you son, our D took Spanish 1a & 1b 7th and 8th grade year. I think we will have to transport S to the high school for French…but small price.</p>
<p>btw, how have you fared with the new attendance boundary options? All options have us rezoned to CyWoods. I’m finishing my alternate teacher certification (I’m a CPA) and hope to teach Business Ed there.</p>
<p>Band will not hurt much. He will have to 3 semesters of PE - Marching Band qualifies for that. And now he will also have to take 1 semester of fine art = concert band. Starting in 11th grade, he can take those two as pass fail (no GPA effect). So it does not hurt him - it just deprives him of ability to take K-AP level classes. He will have to take just the ‘extra’ concert band for one semester in 10th grade.</p>
<p>With Band he will never be # 1. Chances are some one in his grade will follow strict academic track.</p>
<p>Also, be ready for the gruesome months till the foot ball season is over. In case of my son he averaged 25 hours/wk from August-Nov. That is just an average. In the month of October it may hit 35 hrs/wk. Every school in Cy-Fair go to too many band competitions. That is the macho thing for all band directors.</p>
<p>But as we have learned, Band has the least negative impact on GPA compared to other ECs like Choir, Orchestra or drama. </p>
<p>As I said before, band has tremendous other intangible benefits. Knowing everything would we do it again? Yes !!!.</p>
<p>Rezonning does not impact us - we have only one.</p>
<p>Hopefully, kids and parents are realizing that the strict academic track is not necessarily the way to go. I get the impression the highly selectives want to see kids who are passionate and involved in something outside of academics. Kids need to have time to make an impact in other ways…hopefully, this impact is more valuable than number 1 in the class with a blank resume. I do agree though…there will always be those kids who go straight academic, play the game to the max and get that number 1 spot. That’s one of the negative side effects of top 10% laws and the loopholes that school districts create as a result of those laws.</p>
<p>I just pulled out my S’s middle school course catalog and I am amazed at how many high school requirement classes are offered in summer school. We just never considered sending D to summer school after her 6th grade year to get her high school fine arts or communication applications requirements out of the way! We will consider this for our S. But we will only play the rank game to a certain extent and not to the point where a wonderful extracurricular like band or golf team is taboo. And we want time for him to be involved in leadership activities like PALS or Yearbook. If ranks suffers, so be it.</p>
<p>btw…Band sounds even more time consuming than cheer! D practiced at school 2-3 hours a day + private gym time for tumbling skills. At most, about 20 hours a week. Nationals were last week and things are definitely a little easier now. But preparing for tryouts and studying for SAT are going to conflict. May be time to say buh-bye to cheer.</p>
<p>Simba and Laurensmom - what is “K” that you are talking about equalling AP?? I must have missed something. Sounds unfair, whatever it is.
All this is why I am so glad my S’s school does not rank. S had a friend at his former high school who was an All-State band member - very talented. This student QUIT BAND to try and compete for #1 rank senior year b/c band was not “weighted.” I thought that was just awful.</p>
<p>hi tabbyzmom! Simba and I both have children in CFISD (Houston suburb). They have a weighted 7.0 scale. A’s in on-level classes will get you a 6.0 and A’s in above-level will get you a 7.0. </p>
<p>Currently, there are several distinctions in the above-level bracket. From lowest intensity or difficulty to highest they are: K, AP, Horizons-AP, and Horizons-AP-Dual. Horizons classes are for those identified as gifted. AP is self explanatory. Horizons-AP (HAP) is AP classes with as many gifted kids as possible clustered. And HAP-Dual is the same class for concurrent college credit at CyFair College. {Dual works out for those kids who do not think they’ll score high enough on the AP exam or don’t want to take the AP exam. Many state colleges will accept the CyFair College credit as a transfer credit.} But all of these levels earn the exact same GPA points (A=7, B=6, C=5, etc…) So many kids ranked at the top of the class have taken the very lowest difficulty classes (K) and earned the same GPA points as kids who have taken HAP-Dual (my D). And yes it doesn’t seem fair.</p>
<p>Also part of the game is getting the district required on-level classes (fine arts, speech, technology) out of the way before a kid hits high school. The middle school system is set up so that 6-8 graders can take their courses early either in regular or summer session. Grades achieved in middle school are not computed in gpa and therefore do not affect rank. The goal is to take as few as possible on-levels in high school.</p>
<p>Simba…have I gotten this right?</p>
<p>yes…you got it right, but remember no summer class bet’ 8-9 grade.</p>
<p>Wow, laurensmom, that’s amazing…and unfair!
Your D should definitely apply to Rice. Why not apply? You’ll never know if you don’t try!!!
My S applied ID to Rice and is waiting to hear. He applied to quite a few schools. I advised him to apply to lots of schools so he’d have lots of choices. It’s a one-time thing…Good luck!!!</p>
<p>hey im a CFISD senior!
ihave a recommendation. for health dont bother takingthe class. BIG waste of time/energy/brain cells. take the CBE credit by exam. u dont have to pay any $$, it’s a 2 hour 100 multiple choice test. downfall: you have to get a 90 or above to earn credit for health. i barely made it. but i made it, so its all good.
also, consider PE correspondence with texas tech univ. the foundations of fitness correspondence takes NOT physical ability (i made up numbers when hey asked how many pushups i could do) an takes about 4 hours to finish the whole course. it take money though. i think like $150 or something for each semester course. i took 2 PE semester courses correspondence, and that gave me room for advanced science classes. my 3rd PE credit was 3 weeks summer school. ran, swam, bowled, and learned a lot of card games.
even though correpondence, CBE, and summer school count toward GPA, it wasnt asbad as if were to take it during the school year bc i replaced them w/ higher classes, so m GPA sort balanced out. i ave a 6.755 right now. i would have a 6.82 if i didnt move to CFISD my freshman year (they hate out of district ppl and made all 8 of my former school classes L level)
PM me if u want recommendations on school or something…</p>
<p>You make a good point Angel. If you can’t get the on-level out of the way before high school, taking correspondence or summer is a good way to make room for APs during regular session. If my D doesn’t make it into TASP, she will probably get her speech credit taken care of this summer…next year she wants to take AP Physics (because she LOVES her awesome Physics teacher) and AP Chem or Biology and the AP Scientific Research Extension. She needs the Speech out of the way to have room for all that and the additional above-levels will somewhat offset that on-level speech course. But, unfortunately, she will be a Senior and that Junior rank is what she is going to have to put on her transcript. Darn…wish I had talked to Simba last year about this time! lol!</p>
<p>Btw…congratulations- that is an outstanding GPA. And why in the world did they make your transfer credits L level?! That doesn’t seem fair! Do you mind if ask what district you transferred from?</p>
<p>Laurensmom: “It is an important decision because if she designates Rice her first choice, generous NM scholarship offers from other colleges (Baylor) will evaporate.”</p>
<p>I have a NMF daughter who is a Rice Freshman. Best advice we had was to designate National Merit choice as “undecided” until acceptances were in hand. (This would not apply if your first choice school says you have to designate and committ earlier.) Rice gives NMS to ALL attending NMFinalists. (My daughter actually got one from NM corporation itself. But it doesn’t really matter - Rice will offer them to any NMF student attending. You don’t have to designate until the date NMCorp sets. ) Ask Baylor when is the deadline to designate them as her first choice school. Until then, you can stay undecided.</p>
<p>As for class rank. Rice understands the system in Texas schools. Your daughter seems like a very strong candidate. If she truly wants Rice, then you might want to have her apply ED; if she is wavering or finances are an issue, go with ID.<br>
My daughter is really enjoying all the opportunities at Rice. Good luck with your daughter’s application!</p>
<p>i transferred from a new england prep school
the irony…</p>
<p>Q: anxiousmom - your daughter got a national merit sponsored award, AND a Rice sponsored award? It was my understanding that you got one or the other, but never both. </p>
<p>I think that Rice offers national merit awards to all finalists who do not recieve corporate or national merit-sponsored awards.</p>
<p>good grief angel…it doesn’t make sense that they wouldn’t at least give you K level credit. Did your parents protest? We have a new kid from UK who transferred in a ton of IB credit…he apparently convinced them to give him K level credit for a lower level fine arts class. Or so the scuttlebutt among the kids goes… Not sure about the accuracy of this though because the story came from some of our Number 1s who were worried he would jump them in rank and send them all to Number 2. (D says he is a nice guy and very bright.)</p>
<p>I don’t have feeling one way or other, but just a comment. For some individual cases the policy sounds unfair, but on a larger scale the schools have no way of knowing how the 20,000 or so school district in country classify their classes.</p>
<p>My favorite is an example from a speech by a Stanford ad-com. They came accross a course called ‘Women in Motion’ - the course turned out to be driver’s ed class.</p>
<p>I think they do give equivalent credits to districts in Houston area. We had a similar situation - the kid had many IB credits. The fair resolution was to unrank the kid. Let the colleges figure out how to evaluate the transcripts !!</p>
<p>true Simba - I just find it difficult to believe that a small prep wouldn’t have some indication on transcripts as to which courses are advanced and which are not. And to make a blanket decision to treat all transfer credits as on-level (as in angel’s case) may (or may not) indicate they didn’t do enough investigating. I think they should at least try. But wouldn’t it be great if all colleges looked at the courses, content and grades and just throw rank out…my D would love that!! 
</p>
<p>I’m not sure what they are doing with our IB transfer student. According to the kids, he does now have a higher gpa than the number 1s. But the number 1s have also been told they are still number 1. Not sure what is going on. Maybe they are not going to rank him either. hmmm…wonder if I can get Fair to unrank my D…lol!</p>