My daughter’s college ( but it is not a community college) offers two different basic 100- level psychology courses: psychology as a natural science and psychology as a social science. She took the science option to fulfill a college science requirement. It, of course, emphasized neurology, the effect of biology on mood/behavior, effect of medicines/drugs, etc. However, she had taken a local community college basic psychology class during high school and felt there was a lot of crossover. If you are looking for a summer-school option for your son, it may be that, for future college admissions purposes, a community-college psychology course would have more of a natural science emphasis than a high school psychology class would. Of course, you’d have to carefully check out the community college course list, maybe even talk to someone in the department, and find out more what the content emphasizes in the high school class. It might be worth looking into switching out that high school psychology class for your son’s particular purposes.
He could do 2 sciences senior year because he will probably stop Spanish after junior year. He was hoping to use that spot for music theory so he would have both a performance class and a theory class.
So my thoughts:
Chem with Lab Junior Year
Physics with Lab Senior Year
Then either add Psychology Senior Year (with no Music Theory) or complete Paych through a CC in the summer and keep Music Theory.
Psych works well as a summer CC class, in my opinion.
Of course double check with the OT programs to which he is applying to make sure this would work.
A higher level of Spanish may be helpful for someone in health care.
My suggestion would be:
- 11th: chemistry
- 12th: physics and option of advanced biology, psychology, music theory, or other course, depending on schedule constraints.
College courses in biology, chemistry, and physics may recommend or require high school level course work in those subjects, but generally do not recommend or require advanced or AP level course work in high school. So getting all three of the main sciences done is generally more important than advanced level or elective sciences.
Just to be clear, he’ll take the following senior year
English (required)
Statistics (required)
Physics (you all convinced me)
Psychology
Orchestra
And then he has one more slot, which could be the fourth science, or music theory, or choir.
We will definitely look into CC options, but when I look at our local CC, I don’t see great options. Part of the issue is that he has other commitments that he really loves, and that I think strengthen his application, that mean we’d need very specific timing. Looking at the current schedule, his options would be things like an astronomy class during the school year that gets out at 10 p.m. twice a week, and I am just not convinced that’s sustainable for this particular kid, or giving up summer plans that are important to him.
So, that brings us back to advanced bio, forensic science with lab, or environmental science without lab, or hoping that he can count psychology, which is listed as a social science at his school, as a science.
It sounds like you have a good plan moving forward. I will say that students should also try and focus on their interests, to the degree possible. When I was a senior in high school I had to choose between calculus and journalism. I’d been the editor of the school paper for two years already and contributed a weekly update for the community newspaper. I was thinking about being a journalism major in college. Nearly all the careers and majors I was interested in did not require calculus. What did I do senior year? I took the journalism class, and still received generous merit aid packages from colleges I applied to.
We don’t all have the same life goals and expectations. Although it’s great to have the highest rigor possible for the kids who are aiming for a Top X college, it’s not always possible due to scheduling constraints (from the school or life). It’s not always what’s best for the individual. I don’t think the matter of which 4th science he takes is going to be a make or break issue for your kid’s future.
I agree this is a good plan, and further that you should figure out the details for senior year when the time comes based on interests. There is a generic set of recommendations that tend to work well for many paths, but when there are constraints, modifying those recommendations for more specific paths is perfectly fine. But I think you can cross that bridge when you come to it.
I think this definitely depends on the Math expectations for the first Physics class.
The way our HS works, the “advanced” STEM sequence actually starts back in the middle school, where the advanced kids take Geometry in 8th along with Physics 1. Then in 9th they take Chemistry, then Bio in 10th, and then they have up to two years of advanced electives. I note Physics 2 is offered both with Algebra and with Calculus (obviously with different math requirements).
If you don’t use their middle school but start with the HS, you will typically have to start with Physics 1, but then they have a Chemistry class in the summer that means you can get on track to take Bio in 10th, and on to the electives 1th/12th. This is what my S24 did and ended up taking Advanced Inorganic Chem electives in 11th and Advanced Bio in 12th. We’ll see, but hopefully he is well-prepared for the Bio minor (maybe major) track he has chosen to try out in college.
If you join the HS in 11th and have already taken Chem and Bio in your old HS in 9th/10th, you instead can do Physics 1 (Accelerated). NOT something you would normally expect an 8th/9th grader to do, since it assumes more advanced math by then. And then you are on to advanced electives in 12th.
All this flexibility is great but also incredibly resource-intensive. So many schools basically have to choose between the less math-intensive Physics 1 sort of class you do before Chem and Bio, or the more math-intensive Physics 1 (Accelerated) sort of class you do after.
Personally, I have a mild preference for doing Physics first and then revisiting as an advanced class if you would like (possibly with Calculus by then). But obviously you can only do what your HS makes possible.