My son is taking 9th grade ELA as an 8th grader. It will be on his high school transcript. Should he only take 3 years of ELA in high school to free up a spot for advanced science class. He would like to apply for a very selective college (HYPSM). Those schools recommend 4 years of English. Will 4 years of English on his transcript satisfy the guidance even one of them from 8th grade? Or do they prefer a student to have an English course every high school year regardless his level? I have a similar question for math acceleration. My son will take AP Calculus in 10th grade. From Stanford’s website, “if you complete the most advanced level of a world language offered by your school as a sophomore, it is not necessary to take additional world language classes your junior and senior year.” But they may see English and math differently.
Top colleges expect English each and every year regardless of credits. It is highly unlikely that he will have exhausted the high school English offerings.
For foreign language, if he’s completed level 4 as a sophomore and exhausted the school’s offerings, no college expects additional courses. In your quote, Stanford clearly specified that this applies to foreign language study. If Stanford wanted that statement to apply to subjects other than foreign language, they would have said so.
For math, if he’s completed AP calculus as a sophomore, I’m assuming the school’s math department has suggestions on further math options as it’s unlikely he is the first student ever in this situation.
Yes, he should take an English elective. He may not have a choice about it. C24 took 9th grade English in 8th, and found to their dismay that they were not allowed to take 10th grade English in 9th grade for…reasons (none of which were ever explained to either them or me). But they still had to take and English, so they took an elective in 9th.
Have him take 4 years of English in HS. That is what will be expected by top schools. And, as a suggestion, don’t make acceptance to HYPSM a goal of his HS years - unhooked students are accepted at very, very low rates to these schools regardless of their academic accomplishments (absent a math olympiad medal or other significant academic prize/award) and you don’t want him to feel he wasted his HS years if it doesn’t work out.
The elite schools you have listed expect to see English, Science, Social Studies and Math all four years of high school, and completion of level 4 in a foreign language.
This is clearly written about foreign language. Please don’t conflate this to meaning math as well. As noted, there should be ways your school offers courses to students who have completed calculus as 10th graders.
According to this thread, at the beginning of January, your son was a rising freshman, and you had the same question about social studies…
I will add…make sure your son meets the graduation requirements of your school district and state. Where I am, that requires a certain number of courses in core areas over the four years. It does not mean you can skip them so you can take advanced science or do ECs.
Thank you for sharing your insights. Our high school is fine with him not taking English or math or foreign language in senior and not taking social studies in freshman. He will meet all graduation requirements. I would like to make sure that won’t hurt his chance for very selective colleges with only 3-5% acceptance rate. He understands the chance is very low but still wants to try.
On one hand, he is more interested in science/engineering and performance arts
but our high school only has 6 periods. You can see it will be almost impossible to take his interested classes if having each core class every school year( only foreign language will free up a spot in senior). I believe that advanced science classes are more beneficial for him in his interested areas than taking another 12 grade ELA class or a dual enrollment math or another social studies.
On the other hand, colleges’ websites don’t mention if 4 years of math or English recommendations considering high school credits earned from middle school. Stanford’s website only mentions world language as an example in the Q&A, here is the whole paragraph “Please note that our recommended high school curriculum is only a guideline. There is not a set of required courses for admission to Stanford, and our guidelines leave room for flexibility. For example, if you complete the most advanced level of a world language offered by your school as a sophomore, it is not necessary to take additional world language classes your junior and senior year. Please keep in mind, though, that we expect students to take approximately five academic courses each semester, including during their senior year.” Will 5 years of rigorous science/ 3 years English be considered less competitive than 4 years of science /4 years English for a STEM student?
Are all accepted students to HYPSM take English/math/science/social studies every year in high school? Is it a myth or fact?
Most likely are. Plus have taken through level 4 of a foreign language.
You can google the common data set for colleges being considered. Colleges list the required or recommended number of HS classes for each subject. I would expect that most students at elite universities have met or exceeded the stated minimums.
I’ll go along with most, but not all, accepted applicants have met or exceeded the college’s recommendation for HS preparation, but it’s also evaluated in context of the high school curriculum, offerings, and requirements. I’ve said before that I did not meet every “recommendation” of the college I attended.
That said, when users ask “Do I have to take x years,” their reason for not wanting to do so is invariably one that won’t impress the college.
The majority of selective colleges - a list that goes far beyond HYPSM - look for kids to take all the core subjects every year of high school. That includes taking at least one class in each of the core sciences: biology, chemistry and physics.
Will AP Research be considered English? I know you won’t get credit from most colleges. Our high school is good at teaching it. Will 3 years of English (we have a AP seminar 10th lit combo class) and AP research satisfy that 4 years English?
No.
@ivymcginnis please explain why you are trying to do work arounds for taking four years of core courses when your kid supposedly will want to apply to elite colleges?
With six periods in the day, there are five for the core and one for something like band, or another elective.
OR if your kid takes level 4 of foreign language in 11th grade, that will free up an additional period senior year of HS for an elective.
As an example, my kids finished honors Spanish 4 in 10th grade. They, therefore, didn’t need to take a FL in 11th and 12th, thus freeing up periods for electives, or study hall.
They both took science, English, social studies and math all four years of high school.
And they weren’t applying to elite colleges.
Re: performance arts? What type? Music, plays? Doesn’t your school have things like plays and musicals that are ECs done after school?
With 6 periods, there would still be one every year for an elective. Mine choose wind symphony, and did their acting etc in school plays and even civic theater productions. Both were in precollege wind ensembles and orchestras.
I’m not sure I understand why you are trying to side step taking academic courses for all four years.
Is there any particular reason your child doesn’t want to take English? If they are available, elite schools will be looking for AP Lang and/or AP literature.
Correction….if the question were “should you take just 3 years of English if the goal is to get into a reachy reach college?” then my answer to that question would be no.
My opinion is that AP research won’t count as ELA. But it would be up to the indiv college. If the goal is 3-5% admit schools, then their answer probably would be no…it won’t count as an ELA class. But you really should ask the admissions depts directly.
Given the goal being to get into top 20-ish type of colleges, the student does need to take the core subjects all 4 yr of HS. Period.
They do see English and math differently. With foreign language, sometimes getting past level 4 can be difficult due to course availability and scheduling constraints. This is sometimes the case with math, for example when a student maxes out the school’s course offerings (though that problem can sometimes be resolved with DE or college-level courses), but almost never the case with English, which usually offers different opportunities to fan out into electives after (or instead of) AP Lit.
High school English is not as strictly leveled as math and foreign language, so there is more of an expectation to take four years of English, unless there really are no more available after taking the usual sequence of college prep track courses (preferably at the highest track of honors, AP, or whatever the school has, for students aiming for more selective colleges).
But many high schools do offer non-remedial English electives that can be used for the fourth year in your student’s situation.
For schools with more than 6 periods, students can still take their interested courses besides the 5 core classes. With band as a period, he can’t fit in 2AP CSs, AP Research, AP Physics C or AP Chemistry after we mapped out the 4 years.
He is asking to take Spanish 2 virtual in order to take band and acting as two electives for 9th grade. He is playing a small role (as a 8th grader) at the high school’s musical for the past 6 weeks and loves it. Our high school requires students to take acting class for the year to be on a play or musical. I would like him to be able to do things he loves.