9th Grade course selection question

Dear All, I meant to have my daughter take Honor Chemistry (extra) in 9th grade. The HS counselor recommended too options:

option 1: take gym in community college this summer to free one credit for the extra science course, but she will have to give up band (as an elective). She can join band in 10th grade.

option 2: replace Social Studies with Honor Chemistry. She will come back to take Social Studies in 10th grade, even AP SS.

For option 1, she will have to give up her beloved band for a year and will lose international travel with the band, which she does not like. As a parent, I only care if missing one year of band has any negative impact on her college application.
For option 2. I concern about missing one year of social studies will affect her grade in 10th grade.

What can be the better option? Any opinions are valued.

Many thanks

Any opinion is valued? How about her opinion?

What does that even mean? Take chemistry on top of another science class? If so, what’s the rush if doing so is going to mess up the rest of her schedule?

Agree with the above: what is daughter’s opinion?

Go with your daughter’s opinion and what you believe is best for your child. Why would you make her pass up Band and the travel options it can provide her for yet another science class. In the long run, the Band will probably show her to be a more well rounded student.

While there are minimums that are needed to get into selective schools, your child’s high school experience should also include pursuits that make her happy. For mine, it was volleyball which took up massive amounts of time. No, she is not playing varsity in college, but it was a welcome respite from a stress filled high school course load.

Again, what does she want. And make sure she is saying what she wants, not what she feels you want to hear.

Is Band at the same time, then, as Honors Chem?

Take Band and let her enjoy it. If that’s what she loves then go with it.
Why push honors Chem in 9th grade? Is she in love with science or are you? There are lots of options in life. Let your kid choose a few.

Another vote for allowing your daughter to take band as a freshman. HS is so much better when you have a place/group where you “belong.” Music ensembles tend to attract really nice kids, and these kids are often some of the top students.

If there is band camp that takes place before school begins, your daughter should have a nice variety of people she knows, making the transition to HS easier.

As others have mentioned, music can be a welcome change of pace in an otherwise grueling schedule. Not to mention that music is intrinsically valuable!

She should not stop Band for a year- she needs to keep up with her instrument. Once she quits she will not be able to just rejoin as she will have lost the whole year of learning how things are done in HS. Band can be a refreshing break from more academic courses plus can add an extra curricular component to her resume through its various activities.

Also- why the rush with an extra science course? There’s plenty of time to take whatever her HS scheduling allows. Her admission to any college will not be based on purely academics with no room for fun classes.

Let her decide if she wants to continue to be in band. Once she quits presume she has quit forever. Then she needs another nonacademic pursuit for relaxation. I remember working hard in band through HS, took what science I could and did an Honors degree for an undergrad Chemistry major. Son was in Orchestra, did as much HS science as he could etc. But that was over 4 years of HS. He chose math, added comp sci. Both of us at a top 10/20 U in our fields.

Let your child be a HS student without the pressure to have a good resume for college applications. Her interests will mature as she continues to grow up. Who knows- she may have a passion for something other than science, despite great aptitude and parental desires. She will not be “doomed” if she has a more well rounded HS education instead of the most in sciences. In fact, the beauty of an American education is that college bound or not, a student can take a wide variety of classes. Nothing wrong with taking art, music, shop classes et al in addition to college prep classes.

As she progresses through HS you need to turn her course choices more and more over to her. SHE is the one choosing her path, not you. You may still have to approve her course list with your signature. But, it is HER life and SHE needs to be making decisions with suggestions, not commands, from you.

Your D needs to discuss her options with her guidance counselor without you present. You sound like you are too concerned with getting into colleges and not thinking about the present. You want your D to have a good childhood and not just be aiming for some future prize. This means academics suitable to her intellectual needs and other classes and activities to meet her changing emotional and social needs. Gifted kids do more than just take as many academic classes as they can (both in HS and in college). They also live their lives to the fullest, including music, arts and sports.

I will never forget how my HS schedule precluded some Honors classes because of my other choices that conflicted. My son also had to forgo an AP class because of schedule conflicts. There are always going to be problems getting every course in HS and in college. Being in music was far better in the long run than getting a bit of extra academics.

I agree with the others, if my child loved band, I would not have them “give it up” to rearrange a freshman high school schedule. Those types of Chemistry vs. this or that can be addressed in the following three years. The international traveling is far too enriching to give up in this case IMO.

Thank you so much for your input. My D has other music opportunities other than school band. She is an excellent pianist, and also plays at County Youth Band. Playing at band outside school is fun, also is considered well rounded, right?

What about “outside” options? When I’ve seen this happen before, the kids went to an online course to substitute for one of the other HS classes which then freed up the schedule enough to make it possible.

It sounds like your mind is made up-that since she has other outlets for music besides high school she won’t need band. My understanding is that they can be very different. If your D’s passion is band, and if it will allow her international travel, I’d say that trumps honors chem as early as 9th grade. Listen to the others-let your D do the choosing!

re: JustOneDad

I was thinking about this, but not sure the quality of intensive summer online course can substitute of one year classroom lesson.

What does SHE want to do? That is what you need to find out. There is no reason to drop band for science if she likes band and plans to continue through high school. She also absolutely should not skip physical education during the school year UNLESS she plays a sport each season or has a physically activity outside of school (travel soccer teams, dance classes twice each week, martial arts classes, etc.) Physical education is about giving her opportunity to move her body and to develop long-term good health habits. The extra science class can wait.

Unless she would otherwise not be taking a science at all, there does not seem to be much value in trying to cram an extra science in 9th grade, making a mess of the rest of her schedule. It is not like high school chemistry (honors or otherwise) starts a four year prerequisite sequence of high school courses requiring it to be started in 9th grade, like other subjects that are sequenced like foreign language and math.

FWIW, I also think your daughter should do freshman band - for all the reasons mentioned above. My son had some scheduling issues freshman year and didn’t take Honors Chem which was what honors track kids took - he ended up taking a Fast Paced Chemistry course through CTY instead. They managed to do all of high school chem in 3 weeks. He later took AP Chem and did fine. The CTY course appeared as a “credit” without a grade on his transcript - though he did take the NYS Regents exam in chemistry and that score also appeared on his transcript. I don’t think one science course more or less will make much difference in the grand scheme of things as to where she gets into college.

First of all, taking Honor Chem in 9th grade moves room for her to take more AP courses earlier. With Honor bio and chem under her belt, she can take AP bio in 10th grade, which help her higher GPA and ranking in class, also, allows her to qualify chem or bio olympiad earlier.

I wish to hear any thoughts on option 2 please.

Why? You’ve already decided on the tiger track and are seeking validation from strangers, most of whom disagree with you.

OP mentions the primary concern is how this decision will affect college applications, with what seems to be little regard for her daughter’s opinion.

I’m trying to think of a delicate way to say this. My children are more compliant than most 13 and 15 year olds, but they would absolutely chafe at the idea that I view them as students first and human beings second. (I don’t!) Schedules have little wiggle room, so it’s nice for kids to make a choice when possible, especially if they feel strongly about a class/activity.

I don’t like either option. I agree with the various reasons stated for allowing her to take band if she wants to. Both of my kids have participated in music and gotten a lot out of it (including international travel for one–excellent experience).

I do not like the idea of skipping a year of Social Studies either. One of the things I like very much about my kids’ HS, a magnet school, is that all students must take math, science, social studies, and English every year. Doesn’t matter if they come in with 2-3 years of math credit (which is not uncommon) and thus have enough to graduate by junior year or sooner–they take more . IMO, high school is not the time to overly specialize.